Streets to the Summer
by Akino Ame
Summary: Post KHII. One year after Sora returns home, he and the friends he's made on his journey are determined to make this a summer they won't forget.
1. Track 01

Streets to the Summer  
Track 01: "Summertime Feeling"

The final bell rang at the small school on the Destiny Islands, freeing all of the students for the summer. Wakka, Sora, and Selphie stood next to the front steps, waiting for Kairi, Riku, and Tidus to get out. Wakka was tossing his ball into the air and catching it while Sora rocked a bit on his skateboard.

"How long is it going to take for them to get out?" he asked.

"Mrs. Hasagawa's half-deaf," Wakka explained. "She probably didn't hear the bell. Someone's got to yell to remind her."

"We're going to have her too next year," Selphie commented with some dread, looking at Sora.

"Don't worry about it," Wakka replied. "She's a nice old lady, even if she is a little crazy. She helped me out a lot last year, when I thought I was gonna fail math."

"She doesn't sound too bad," Sora said.

"You're saying that you faced down Heartless and Nobodies, but you're scared of the tenth year teacher?" Riku asked, walking up.

"Very funny, Riku," Sora muttered.

A year had passed since they'd finally returned to the Destiny Islands. Fortunately for Riku and Sora, their yearlong absence had been rewritten in everyone's memories as an educational trip to the mainland. Of course, both had been worried when they had to deliver a report on life on the mainland, but Twilight Town was a close enough environment for them to fake it. Even so, they'd been held back for a year to make up for the classes they'd missed. Sora was in ninth year with Selphie, and Riku was in tenth with Kairi and Tidus, rather than in eleventh with Wakka.

"Are we all set for tonight?" Kairi checked.

"Almost," Sora answered, tucking his skateboard under one arm while holding her hand. "Hayner said he wanted to bring a few things—his Struggle bat for one."

"Tell him to bring an extra bat," Tidus added. "I want to try that."

"Make sure we have enough time to stop off at Disney Castle for a little bit," Riku warned. "I want to get another book while we pick up Donald and Goofy." Being friends with King Mickey, Riku had a standing invitation to their library, and he took advantage of it as often as possible.

"Just don't take forever, okay?" Sora asked. "Last time, we were there all day."

"Just because you haven't read anything since _The Great Mouse Detective_ when you were six, it doesn't mean I can't enjoy reading," he answered sarcastically to Sora's indignant "Hey!" "Besides, I know exactly what I want to borrow."

There was an awkward silence for a minute. Whenever Riku said that, it usually meant he wanted some kind of philosophy or psychology text. And that meant he was feeling the darkness that was Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, in his heart more painfully than usual. It had been a year since he'd come to terms with being a dark person while living in the light, and a year since he realized he was trying too hard to avoid becoming Ansem. He hadn't needed to use that form in a long time, and he was fine with using the powers of darkness he normally had access to when he needed to fight. But they were always afraid of what would happen to him if he fell back into his old fears. Sora and Kairi weren't as afraid of Xehanort's Heartless taking control as they were of Riku withdrawing into himself. If he shut them out, there was no telling what might happen.

"You're okay, right?" Sora questioned hesitantly.

"Yeah," Riku answered after a pause. "It's just that it's been a year since it happened. And don't worry." Here his voice was stronger, lacking the darkness. "I just want to look up some history. The story you told me about that black-and-white world beyond those doors was interesting, but I don't know why so many people back at Disney Castle don't remember that past. I want to see both sides of the story so I can understand."

"Hey, you guys better hurry if you're going to change before getting in the Gummi Ship," Selphie realized. "At this rate, we'll never get ready!"

"Okay, we'll meet at my house, then, before we head off," Riku decided. "Once we get Hayner, Pence, and Olette, we'll meet on the island."

"No problem," Wakka agreed. "It'll give me a chance to pick up the food—burgers, hot dogs, chips… If we're gonna have a barbeque, we gotta do it right."

"You're doing the cooking, right?" Selphie checked.

"You think I'm gonna trust Tidus with it after that last fiasco?" Everyone shook their heads as Tidus tried not to look too embarrassed. The last time he cooked, he'd gotten them all sick from food poisoning. Apparently, the fish he'd made wasn't cooked well enough, and they'd all suffered. Riku's parents had been kind enough to let them all sleep over since they were too sick to move anywhere beyond the living room.

"All right," Kairi said as they came to a crossroads, "here's the road to my grandparents'. I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"Yeah, I need to head the other way anyway," Tidus agreed. "See ya!"

And the group split off—Kairi heading to the center of town, where her adoptive grandparents, the mayor and his wife, lived; Tidus to the north, Wakka and Selphie west, and Sora and Riku south. Sora got back on his skateboard and started slowly rolling along while Riku pulled out the last book he'd borrowed from Mickey and read. Sora had no idea how Riku could read and walk at the same time, but then, Riku had joked about being surprised that Sora could skateboard without falling flat on his face—at least, Sora _thought_ it was a joke. Sometimes Riku's sarcasm made it hard to tell.

"Is your mom home?" Riku asked, flipping a page. Where Riku had both parents around, Sora's father had died before he was born. His mother, Suzume, did all she could to raise him on her own, and working long hours was part of it. Because Riku's family lived next door, Sora was often left there when he was younger. Even now that Sora was old enough to take care of himself—and a lot more mentally mature after years of fighting the Heartless—Riku's family liked to keep an eye on him.

"Probably not," Sora answered. "But I told her we'd be having a barbeque tonight, so she won't worry." He got off his skateboard and walked up to his door, knowing that Riku was standing behind him to be sure he had his key this time. Once, he'd forgotten it and had to break in with the Keyblade. Riku never let him forget it. But when Sora produced said key and opened the door, Riku walked over to his own house.

When Sora came home, one of the first things he had done was rearrange his bedroom. So much of what he used to have were the hopes and dreams of a boy, and now he was a young man who had fought nightmares and achieved many dreams. He threw out a lot of what he didn't need anymore and repaired the things he'd left broken too long. The end result was a room that was a lot more organized and a lot more grown-up. His mother had been surprised to see the change, but she didn't say anything. And Sora liked it—some of it was similar to the way Roxas's room had been set up in the duplicate Twilight Town. He'd cleaned up his desk and moved a nightstand and lamp next to his bed for some late-night reading (despite Riku's jokes, he did read—just not as much as Riku did). His bed was still right next to the window, but the blue crystal from Roxas's trophy sat on the sill, catching the sunlight. Numerous Keychains hung on the walls, most of them dormant once more, but still ready in case they needed to be awakened. His mother had been confused at the sight of so many Keychains, so Sora had passed them off as souvenirs he'd picked up on the mainland. Only his armor, accessories, and Summon Charms weren't up—he kept those under his clothing, even at school. Once, he had been caught off-guard by a Heartless attack at school. He wanted to be sure it would only happen once.

Sora pulled on the clothes the three fairies had made for him—he didn't expect he would need his Drive Forms, but Twilight Town often had a Nobody problem, so he felt better with this extra precaution—snatched the Oblivion Keychain from his wall, and grabbed a quick bite to eat from the kitchen before walking over to Riku's.

In all honesty, Sora didn't need to eat before going. Riku's mother, Haruko, was always happy to feed her son's friends. She handed him a generous piece of coconut cake before letting him sit on the porch with Riku. Kairi had always thought it was funny just how much Riku looked like his parents—he was practically a clone of his father, but with his mother's eyes and facial structure. Sora, on the other hand, didn't bear as much of a resemblance to his mother as Riku did to his. From photos he'd seen of his father, there was a slightly closer likeness, but in truth, Sora looked like _himself_ more than like anyone else.

"Hope I didn't take too long," Kairi called, riding her bicycle over. "My grandmother was asking questions. I think she suspects what we're doing."

Sora and Riku looked at each other. Kairi's grandmother had always been shrewd; they'd always known there was the chance she'd figure out the truth of their absences and how they were related to the random Heartless attacks on the islands. But still, there were laws forbidding them to reveal the existence of other worlds—they only got away with telling Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, Hayner, Olette, and Pence because they had gotten involved. Selphie had been with Kairi when she contacted Roxas, and Tidus and Wakka had asked questions. Olette, Hayner, and especially Pence had helped Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find the other Twilight Town DiZ had constructed.

"Kairi, she won't say anything, right?" Sora asked hesitantly.

She shook her head. "I think she's always known there was something strange going on since she and Grandfather found me. But I don't think we have to worry. She just wants to make sure we'll be safe."

"Then there's nothing for us to worry about," Riku decided. "Come on, we'd better go."

* * *

Seifer entered the sandlot to see Fuu, Rai, and Vivi staring at the sign-up sheet for Struggle. Already, he didn't like whatever it was that happened. 

"What's going on?" he asked. Vivi, seeing he was in a bad mood, got out of the way quickly.

"Hayner," Fuu answered simply.

Seifer traced his finger down the sheet to where he knew his rival had signed up the week before and stared in shock. The name had been scratched out. "Someone crossed him off?"

"He did it himself," the Struggle promoter explained. "Didn't give an explanation or anything."

Seifer narrowed his eyes. "Well, he's going to explain it to _me_."

"He's probably with his friends in the back alley," Rai suggested. "Their 'usual place,' y'know?"

Seifer stormed off toward the back alley. He wanted to know why Hayner had dropped out of Struggle—they weren't exactly friends, but he wanted to know what was up. Hayner did _not_ just drop the one thing he always looked forward to in the summer for no reason. And it was a blow to Seifer's pride too. Even though he'd gladly lose to Hayner before admitting he was worthy enough to be considered a rival, rival the younger boy was. And Seifer wanted to know exactly what his rival had planned.

When he reached the abandoned lot the trio had claimed as their hangout, he found a massive cooler blocking the entrance. Olette was kneeling in front of it and said, "Hey, Seifer," before looking at the contents. Seifer was just tall enough to lean over the open lid and peer in. Inside was about two pounds of sea-salt ice cream bars.

"You think this is enough?" she asked.

"There's only going to be eleven of us, right?" Pence replied. "We don't need that much."

"I don't know," she answered. "Donald _really_ liked the ice cream…"

"Sora's going to have stuff there too, so don't go overboard," Hayner warned, walking over. "This is more than enough." Seeing Seifer, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I was coming to ask you why you dropped out of Struggle," he replied, "but then I found the two lovebirds here stuffing ice cream in this cooler. What's up?"

"Nothing really," Hayner answered. "I'm just not going to have that much time to devote to Struggle this year."

"We're hanging out with Sora and his friends a lot this summer," Pence explained. "It's been kind of a rough year for them, and we thought it would be good to celebrate."

"Tonight, we're going to a party on a beach in their town," Olette added. "After that, we're not exactly sure. After all, their town is pretty far away…"

Seifer had put that much together on his own. Sora had been an obvious outsider when he'd first met him. He was so clueless on the way things were done in Twilight Town, and the way he said goodbye to Hayner and everybody each time he left screamed that he lived too far away to know whether or not he'd be able to come back. And the way he knew how to fight those weird invaders that had been coming more and more often—Nobodies, he'd called them—he had to have come from a town that had a massive Nobody problem, and those Nobodies were spreading out all over the world. It wasn't like Seifer planned to confront Sora with it or anything; he just saw it as his duty to protect the town from threats—from street gangs to Nobodies—and he wanted to be sure he knew everything about what he could be dealing with.

"Hey, everyone…whoa!" Sora cried, walking into the alley. Seifer turned and saw him and his odd group of friends frozen in the alley, staring at the cooler. The duck, Donald, quacked in surprise. "How much are you planning to bring? It's just one night at the beach."

"That's what I said," Seifer agreed.

"Sorry," Olette apologized. "I just wanted to be sure the ice cream didn't melt."

"Ice cream?" Donald repeated, a greedy look entering his eyes.

Olette laughed. "Don't worry. We've got plenty. Here's one for now." She giggled more as he happily licked the ice cream bar.

"All right," Seifer decided. "I'll see you when you get back. But just because you're not in Struggle this year, don't think you're not facing me, Hayner. Someone's got to bring you down a peg when you get too cocky."

Hayner smirked. "You sure you're not talking about yourself?" Seifer made a rude gesture before walking off, and Hayner chuckled.

"I hope this isn't too big to carry," Pence commented as Sora and Goofy came over and each tried to lift an end.

"It's kinda heavy," Goofy admitted, "but Sora and I can make it."

"Easy for you to say," Sora grunted. "Put it down for a second, Goofy. I need to get a better grip."

"Are you all ready?" Kairi checked.

"Just a second," Hayner replied. "I'm looking for my comics."

"Are these them?" Riku asked, holding up a bound collection labeled _Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Green with Evil_.

"That's it," Hayner answered, grabbing two Struggle bats as Riku handed him the comic book.

"Don't lose that," Olette warned. "Pence and I spent a lot of money trying to get you those back issues."

"And I told you already that I'm grateful. I just wasn't sure if I put them with the rest of my stuff."

"Is the Gummi Ship going to be big enough for all of us?" Pence asked Donald. The Court Magician shrugged.

"No clue," he answered before returning to his ice cream. Pence let out a long-suffering sigh.

* * *

Everyone involved had to admit that this was probably the greatest summer vacation of their lives. They slurped on the ice cream while Wakka fired up the grill (and subsequently complained about his ice cream melting—between him and Donald, it was a miracle the others got any ice cream at all). Kairi taught Olette how to string together thalassa shells while Selphie told the offworlders lore of the Destiny Islands. Hayner showed Tidus the basics of Struggle, and they battled until dinner was ready. Of course, then Selphie started flirting with Hayner, who was so caught off-guard that Wakka was able to hit him with a blitzball before telling them their food was done. Hayner was still staring after her like an idiot for the next ten minutes. 

Amazingly, everyone was still hungry even after the ice cream. Wakka ran out of food, and Sora climbed a few trees to get some coconuts and paopu fruit. The paopu, which wasn't completely ripe, was thrown on the grill—Wakka had found out that grilled paopu tasted sweeter than raw, and to save them from the embarrassment, grilling it seemed to disqualify it for the child's legend of the fruit binding people together in destiny. Selphie researched the legend and reported back that the paopu had to be eaten raw and freshly picked. Tidus and Wakka had breathed a sigh of relief, worried that a moment of hunger had utterly ruined their lives.

The paopu fruit was easily taken care of, but the coconut presented a problem. The only thing they had on hand that could possibly break them open was Goofy's shield, and that ended in a messy explosion of coconut guts.

Pence, covered in Olette's thalassa necklaces, held up one of the coconuts and said, "I think it needs something sharper. Does anyone have a knife?"

"Mine's not big enough," Wakka replied, but Tidus had a grin on his face.

"Hey, Sora…"

"What?"

"Think your Keyblade might break them open?"

"What?" Donald exclaimed in protest. "Using the Keyblade!"

"Uh, Tidus, I'm not an expert in magical weapons, but I don't think using the Keyblade to break open coconuts is the best plan in the world," Sora commented.

"Then what about Sanctuary?" Kairi asked, summoning her blade. "It's not a _true_ Keyblade, anyway."

Nearly everyone there stared in shock as she brought her flowery Keyblade down and cleaved the coconut in two. It was even more shocking when Riku tossed another in the air and sliced it neatly in half with Way to the Dawn.

Riku shrugged. "It looked like fun."

Sora shook his head and laughed while Donald was still gaping. "Guess if you guys think it's okay…"

The next five minutes was nothing but chaos as the trio smashed open coconuts with their Keyblades, spraying coconut milk every time they swung. After getting sprayed for the umpteenth time, Donald fired a Blizzaga at Sora's back, and Goofy tackled him from the side. While Riku and Kairi laughed at his misfortune, Sora picked up some crushed ice and threw it at them, inciting an eleven-way war of magic, Struggle bats, shields, blitzballs, and Keyblades. It only ended when Hayner and Riku ran over to the cooler and dumped the melted ice all over Sora, Goofy, and Donald. While the victims stood stunned, dripping all over the place, the conspirators gave each other a victory high five.

Once they'd all calmed down and eaten their fruit, Riku and Donald had a magic duel to entertain everyone. It was largely just them showing off, with Riku blasting Dark Aura into the sky and Donald creating fireworks and lightning. When they finally ran out of magic, they took a bow to wild applause. Selphie produced a bag of marshmallows she'd nearly forgotten about, and they all returned to the grill to roast them and share stories.

Sora laughed hard enough that he'd nearly lost his marshmallow in the fire. "The King did _that_?"

"Ahyuk, yep!" Goofy laughed. "The whole basement was flooded. I don't think Master Yen Sid's ever been that mad since."

Riku chuckled. "Funny. Mickey didn't tell me about _this_."

"We only know 'cause we've been friends so long," Donald answered. "I don't even think Queen Minnie knows." This set them all laughing again, and it didn't help when Sora added stories about his journeys. The Twilight Town residents hadn't heard any of these, so they enjoyed it a lot when Sora kept getting interrupted by Donald and Goofy, and occasionally Riku and Kairi.

"And don't forget the Pride Lands, when you got turned into a lion cub!" Goofy added, which got the girls cooing.

"Aww, you must have been a cute cub," Olette commented.

"He was," Kairi answered, smiling. "I saw the photos."

"I have no idea how Jiminy got those pictures," Sora deadpanned. "Form changes were _weird_."

"What about Atlantica and trying to swim there?" Donald reminded him.

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "At least the second time there, we didn't have to fight too much. That was so hard."

"What did you have to do the second time?" Pence questioned.

"We just had to fight Ursula," Goofy answered. "And then we joined in Sebastian's concert."

"Sora singing?" Riku asked. "That must have been painful." Sora scowled while everyone else started laughing.

"What about you?" Hayner added. "You must have some stories to tell."

The laughter suddenly stopped, and Hayner realized he'd said something wrong. He, Pence, and Olette looked at each other in confusion while Riku closed his eyes and the others watched him carefully.

"I think we'd better save my stories for another time," Riku answered carefully. "They're more horror stories than anything else."

"One of these days, I want to hear everything," Sora warned in a low voice. "You've kept us out of it too long."

Riku nodded. "Just not tonight."

"So," Olette started, trying her hardest to salvage what was left of their good night. "What are your plans this summer?"

Wakka made a face. "Trying to enjoy the last summer of being a kid. I finish school next year, so I'm going to have to get a job."

"You guys don't have a university here?" Pence asked in surprise.

"There's one on the mainland, but it's too expensive," Wakka explained. "Most people on the islands don't have university degrees unless they're doctors or teachers. They're the only ones that really need it."

"Wish we had that kind of luck," Hayner commented, stuffing a whole marshmallow into his mouth. "My mom keeps pushing me to get good grades so I can get into a good university."

"Yeah, but then you'd have to worry about getting a job," Tidus pointed out.

"I'm starting to see why Peter Pan wanted to stay a kid forever," Sora said. "What kind of job am I going to be able to hold if I've got to run to another world at a moment's notice to fight Heartless and Nobodies?"

"You managed school just fine," Selphie noticed.

"Yeah, but…" Sora trailed off for a second before managing to get it into words. "With all I've seen, it seems surreal just settling back into a normal life."

"It's a different experience than most people have," Riku put in, "but it's made you stronger. It makes it easier for you to adapt to the changing world. We're more stable than others."

"And those of us who haven't gone through light, darkness, and the place in-between?" Pence asked.

"You fought it too, so you're just as strong," Goofy replied. "We only told you about the other worlds 'cause we knew you could take it."

"Yeah," Donald agreed. "The laws were written to protect the people on each world. But you're involved too."

"I guess that makes sense," Tidus agreed.

"Any other plans?" Hayner asked, trying to bring the conversation back on topic.

"I want to try and find some record of the powers of darkness being used for good," Riku declared. Sora and Kairi gave him pleading looks, but he added, "Don't worry. I won't be gone long. I'll just head off from time to time, searching for answers. I'm not leaving."

"I'm not really sure about what I'll do," Sora commented. "Every time I try to plan something, things don't go as planned. But I think I'll stop by a few worlds and visit my friends there."

"Don't forget about us!" Donald added. "You're not leaving Goofy and me behind."

"You think Mickey might be able to get away for a little bit?" Riku asked. "He helped me a lot on my last journey."

"The King's kinda busy, but I know he'd be happy to help you out," Goofy replied. "Remember, you're his friend too." Riku smiled and nodded.

Suddenly, Wakka belched, catching them all off-guard. Selphie scolded, "Wakka! You're ruining the moment!"

"Sorry," he apologized. "I'm stuffed. I can't eat anymore."

"I'm not surprised after seeing you and Donald eat all that ice cream," Tidus replied. "I thought I was going to be sick watching you."

"After all that, there's no way I'm going to handle the Gummi Ship now," Kairi decided. "Let's just relax for a while before heading back."

They were all happy to oblige, wanting to prolong the night. They could see each other anytime because of the bending of the "no interference" law, but they were having too much fun. Sora pulled Tidus aside to talk to him for a minute before heading back over to Kairi so they could bury Donald and Goofy in the sand. Hayner took out his comic book and started reading when Riku walked by, heading for his friends.

"From what I do know about you, you'd probably like this," Hayner remarked.

"Sorry," Riku apologized, "but I haven't read comic books in a long time."

"You'd like this one," Hayner insisted. "_Power Rangers_ is a staple of childhood in Twilight Town. It's been around for over ten years now, with a new series coming out each year. They'll end one and start a new one. This year's is called _Mystic Force_, but two years ago it was _Dino Thunder_. That's the one that got Pence and Olette saving up to get me this."

"What's it about?"

Hayner shrugged. "Your standard comic fare. A bunch of teenagers—sometimes adults, but mostly kids—are given a great power so they can defend their world from evil. No one was really sure it'd survive until the Green Ranger saga came along. I think you'd like him. He kind of sounds like you."

Riku managed to keep a neutral expression. "Go on."

"One day, a witch cast a spell over an ordinary kid in the street, thinking he'd be a perfect soldier for her. She turned him into the Green Ranger and set him on the other Power Rangers. He was completely in darkness, unable to control anything he did."

"What happens to him?"

Hayner grinned. "His best friend comes along and breaks the spell, then the rest of the Rangers gladly welcome him to the team. He eventually becomes the leader, and later he grows up to be a teacher and leads a new team in _Dino Thunder_."

"Good to know he has a happy ending," Riku commented. "I think I might read that."

"Feel free to borrow it any time you're in Twilight Town. Just be careful with it, okay? Olette and Pence would kill me."

"No problem," Riku promised before heading over to help Kairi and Sora. "Sora, what gave you this crazy idea anyway?"

"Hey, Donald got me with that Blizzaga and Goofy tackled me. It's only fair."

"I don't mean _this._ I mean what made you offer to bring those three here and break about a dozen dimensional laws in the process?"

Sora was silent for a moment as he packed the sand around Goofy. When he spoke again, his voice sounded different, and Riku wouldn't be surprised that if there was more light, he'd see that his friend had blond hair instead of brown. "I just thought it would be a good idea for them to see the beach. After all, those others didn't."

Riku nodded. Even in his Ansem form, he'd felt pity for Roxas and his friends. "They have a beach of their own, you know. You could have had a party there."

Sora's voice was his own again as he answered, "But where would the fun be in that? They're in this too, and so are Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. I wanted to make it special."

Riku sighed. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you're a sap, Sora." Sora threw a handful of sand at him and nearly tripped over Goofy when Riku retaliated. Kairi and Donald burst into laughter as Goofy got up and moved to a safer spot while Riku and Sora continued their impromptu wrestling match. Somehow, everyone had the feeling this was going to be an interesting summer vacation.

**Standard disclaimer applies: I do not own _Kingdom Hearts_ or any of the titles referenced in this. _Kingdom Hearts_ belongs to Disney and Square Enix, and _Power Rangers, The Great Mouse Detective,_ and the _Sorcerer's Apprentice_ cartoon from _Fantasia_ are Disney properties. The Sanctuary Keyblade gets its name from Hikaru Utada's opening theme to _Kingdom Hearts II,_ and the chapter title is from the S Club 7 song "Summertime Feeling." The story title "Streets to the Summer" comes from a song from _Digimon_ _Adventure Zero Two_, belonging to Toei and currently distributed by Disney.**

**This is a sequel to my oneshot "Growing Pains," and is probably AU if Nomura decides to continue the _Kingdom Hearts_ saga. **


	2. Track 02

Streets to the Summer  
Track 02: "Your Story"

The alarm clock rang, and Tidus rolled over to turn it off before staring off into space. He was supposed to meet up with Sora today, in the spot where they'd hidden the Gummi Ship that they'd confiscated during the Heartless battle on the Islands months before. He purposely set his clock so he would wake up early, but he hardly felt like getting out of bed. His lethargy had nothing to do with the party the night before; it had to do with what Sora had told him there.

"_Tidus, when I was away, I met someone named Auron. Do you know anyone by that name?"_

"_No. Why?"_

"_I had to retrieve something Hades was using to control him, and it let me hear his memories and feel his heart. I think he knows you, or some version of you at least. There were a lot of feelings of responsibility—and some of regret—about someone he knew named Tidus."_

"But I've never met anyone named Auron," Tidus murmured, pulling himself out of bed. "Just Wakka, Selphie, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and now everyone else. How would a ghost know me?"

He got dressed, ran a brush through his hair, and went downstairs to the kitchen, where his father was eating breakfast. Tidus got his own food silently. He and Jecht weren't exactly what anyone would call a close family, and only two of Tidus's friends really understood that. Wakka did because he'd been Tidus's friend for ages, so he was used to it. Riku had been slightly caught off-guard by the chilliness, but he didn't say anything because that was how he was. Jecht and Tidus just didn't understand how to relate to each other or express their feelings at all. Maybe it would have been different in some other world or time, maybe even if Tidus's mother had lived past his seventh birthday, but now this was all they had.

Tidus munched on his cereal while Jecht sipped coffee and read the morning paper. For once, the silence between them seemed to be too much.

"Dad?"

Jecht looked over his paper, one eyebrow raised.

"Do you know anyone named Auron?"

The answer was quick and to the point, just like everything about Jecht. "No." Disappointed, Tidus looked down into his cereal. Perhaps sensing the awkwardness of the silence, Jecht added, "Why?"

"Sora mentioned meeting someone by that name on the mainland, and I thought it sounded familiar. That's all."

"Hmm," Jecht answered, going back to his paper.

Tidus dumped out what was left of his cereal and milk into the sink. "I'm going to be hanging out with Sora today. I don't know when I'll be back." A nod. Tidus went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth before heading for Sora's house. Sora's mother was still home and answered the door.

"Sora's still asleep, Tidus," she answered. "Do you want to come in?"

"Thanks, Ms. Kinyou," he replied, kicking the sand out of his sneakers before entering.

"Do you want anything to eat?"

"I just had breakfast before I came, but I'll have some juice if you don't mind."

"No problem." Tidus sat down at the kitchen table as Suzume handed him a glass of orange juice.

"Thanks."

"So what are you and Sora planning to do today?" she asked.

Tidus took a sip before answering, "Oh, just the usual. Probably go to the island."

"You're up awfully early if you're just going to the island."

Tidus took another sip of juice, finding it was a perfect way to delay answering until he thought up a reasonable lie. "You know how us kids are. We want to get as much done as possible before summer vacation's over."

The excuse worked. Suzume shook her head, smiling, and walked over to pick up her stuff before work. "I'll be going now, but Mr. and Mrs. Himura are still home in case Sora doesn't wake up soon. They can keep an eye on things until then."

"Thanks," Tidus replied. "See you later." She waved goodbye before walking out the door.

Tidus finished his juice and started washing out his glass when Sora entered, bleary-eyed and yawning. Tidus grinned at his friend's state.

"Hey, I had to fly everyone back," he defended. "Just give me a chance to eat before we go. I need to wake up."

As Sora pulled a jar of jelly out of the fridge and started toasting some bread, Tidus asked, "Hey, if we're going to the Underworld, is there anything I'm going to need? It sounds like a rough place."

"Yeah," Sora admitted, waking up some. "I've got some armor you can borrow. As for weapons…" He grimaced. "I can tell you right away that using a wooden sword on Heartless isn't fun."

"Great," Tidus muttered.

"I don't think we'll run into too many Heartless if we're just going to talk to Auron," Sora assured. "But he's sometimes hard to find, so I'm going to ask Hercules if we can borrow the Olympic Stone—just in case we do get in a fight."

Once Sora had eaten some breakfast, he and Tidus went to his room to get their gear. Sora slipped the Champion Belt under his clothes and put on a few rings while grabbing the Guardian Soul Keychain. Meanwhile, Tidus stared at the assorted armor and accessories in confusion.

"Uh, Sora?" he asked.

"Oh, right," Sora remembered, coming to his friend's rescue. He handed him a chain and a couple of rings. "The Cosmic Chain is good for resisting fire, blizzard, and thunder attacks—it doesn't leave you invincible, but it holds off a good amount. The Sardonyx Ring boosts your strength a little, and the Tourmaline Ring boosts magic a little."

"Every little bit helps, I guess," Tidus remarked, slipping on the rings and putting the chain around his wrist.

"Worried?" Sora checked.

"Maybe a little," Tidus confessed. "And it's not just because of the Heartless. What you said about Auron… Knowing that there might be another me out there is weird. The name 'Tidus' could just be a coincidence…"

"But there's always the thought that maybe everything you believed is a lie," Sora finished. He looked unusually upset by the thought, as if something deep within his heart had been moved by Tidus's fear. He seemed to be forcing himself to cheer up before finally he said, "Don't worry. I'm sure it won't be a problem. I just want to see if there's some way to help Auron."

"Yeah," Tidus agreed, nodding. "So let's head to the Gummi Ship?"

Sora attached the Keychain to his Keyblade and nodded. The Keyblade vanished to rest within his heart until he needed it. "Let's go."

* * *

It was no problem getting Hercules to loan them the Olympic Stone, but Tidus had a bit of trouble convincing Phil to let him go. It had taken three training rounds before the satyr even reluctantly admitted he had potential, but now he and Sora were walking around the Underworld, looking for Auron. 

"Auron, are you here?" Sora called, jumping out of the way before a rock could fall on him from the ceiling.

"What's with the falling rocks?" Tidus asked. "If this is the realm of the dead, then why are they here?"

"Maybe to bring in more dead people?" Sora suggested. "Anything's possible with Hades's logic."

"And, hey, speak of the devil, here I am," Hades announced, appearing in a poof of smoke and using Sora's head as an armrest. Seeing Tidus, he came over and added, "Ooh, new kid. Hades, Lord of the Dead. Hi, nice to meet ya." Tidus seriously doubted the truth in that.

"What do you want, Hades?" Sora asked in annoyance.

"I think it's more of what you want," Hades replied. "You see, I happen to know where you can find Mr. 'This is my story—you're not part of it!'"

"Where's Auron?" Sora demanded.

"Geez Louise, you could show a guy a little respect," Hades complained. Turning to Tidus, he said, "You'd think he'd at least be a little nice to a god."

"After all you've put us through, you really expect me to forgive and forget?" Sora questioned.

"Hey, give me a break," Hades answered. "It's the way things go. I try to take over, you get in the way—it's business, all right?" But Sora was giving him a cold, hard glare that Tidus never thought he was capable of.

"We just want to know where we can find Auron," Tidus said, trying to be the cool head in this discussion.

Hades looked at him with one brow raised. "A lot politer than you are. I think I like the new kid. And since newbie here is so endearing, I'll tell you where Auron is." He snapped his fingers and a glowing sphere appeared. "Nice, isn't it? Borrowed it from the Fates." And on the sphere—which Tidus soon realized was an eyeball—was a man fighting off armies of Heartless with a sword. "See? He's in the Cup."

"The Cup?" Tidus repeated. "As in the competitions?"

"Bingo!" Hades replied. "Yep, Auron is fighting for his afterlife right now. Looks like you're gonna have to save him, Keyblade boy."

"And the catch?" Sora asked.

"You see the way he treats me?" Hades asked Tidus. "He acts like I've got some kind of hidden agenda!"

"You always do," Sora reminded him.

"Fine!" Hades answered. "Go to the imps and sign up so you can help your friend. You'll have to fight your way to his level though. After all, it's entertainment—no one'd like it if it was too easy for you."

"Right," Sora replied. "Come on, Tidus. Let's find Pain and Panic."

"Newbie, you're fighting too?" Hades questioned.

"Yeah," Tidus answered.

"Be seeing you soon, then." Tidus tried not to think about the implications of that statement as Sora pulled him along to sign up.

Tidus was no stranger to the Heartless. The Destiny Islands had been attacked a couple of times in the past year, and he and his friends had always been quick to fight them with whatever weapons they had available—usually baseball bats, blitzballs, and jump ropes. Although he was nowhere near as experienced a fighter as Sora, Tidus liked to think he could hold his own against the smaller Heartless. The Cup, however, was a completely different story with small armies of many different types of Heartless. And without a weapon of any kind, he felt like he was barely any good against them.

He panted as Sora fed another Curaga through them. "How many more of these rounds do we have to go through?"

"I don't know," Sora confessed. "But we have to hurry if we're going to help Auron."

Tidus drove a fist into the back of a Large Body, dodging explosions from Crimson Jazzes and rubbing his bruised and bloody knuckles. He had no idea how long it would take for them to get that far, and by then, Sora's friend might have lost. And Tidus wasn't sure if he trusted Hades not to let the Heartless take their hearts.

"Got anything that might help?" he asked.

Sora pulled one of his Summon Charms out from underneath his shirt. "Take a break for now. Genie!"

Tidus sat down against the side of the Underdrome and wiped away his sweat while he watched Sora and Genie fight. Even with the Curaga spells and different kinds of Potions he was getting, he was exhausted. His arms ached and felt like they were made of Gummi blocks. His whole body felt sweaty and sticky from fighting in the cold dampness of the Underworld. It was worse than fighting on even the most humid day on the Destiny Islands.

Sora finally ran out of power necessary to keep Genie in another world, and Tidus ran back in to fight. His break had been just what he needed to get his second wind. Between the two of them, they took out the last of the Heartless.

Hades appeared in the stadium in a poof of smoke, clapping sardonically. "Nicely done, boys. You survived the first part."

"How long 'til we can help Auron?" Sora asked.

"Ah, see, now here's the thing—you can't." Sora and Tidus stared at him in shock. "Auron was never here—I can't get him to compete now that you got him out of my control."

"So all this was a trap?" Tidus questioned.

"Batting a thousand, kid," Hades answered, snapping his fingers. Tidus tensed and Sora stared in horror as five people in black cloaks surrounded them. "Organization XIII," Sora recognized in dread. Tidus looked at him in shock.

"How? You defeated them all."

"Allow me to present Xigbar, Demyx, Larxene, Saïx, and your old buddy Axel," Hades mocked.

"How are you doing this, Hades?" Sora demanded.

"Easy," the God of Death answered. "The Underworld connects to the afterlives of many different worlds, and with the exception of a couple worlds, I control them all. That's how I managed to call on Auron from that little Farplane of his world. But the Nobodies you defeated are so much easier to control—no hearts to get in the way."

Sora stared at him in horror. "So…they're completely gone?"

"Yep. Perfect little puppets—about as good as those Heartless. You're dead, you're mine. Got it memorized?" And with that, he returned to his spectator's box and sent Axel in to attack.

Sora raised his Keyblade just in time to block Axel's burning chakrams, and Tidus jumped away from Larxene's knives and lightning attacks. But once he hit the ground, Xigbar shot several spikes into his back. Tidus grimaced in pain while Sora ran in to try and keep Saïx from taking advantage of his weakness. Demyx wouldn't be so easily swayed and blasted Tidus off his feet with a water attack.

"I thought Sora said you were the weak one," he muttered. Demyx smirked and started playing his sitar, creating dancing water forms that started closing in on Tidus. He fought his way through them and just managed to reach Demyx's sitar. But before he could do any damage to it, the water forms changed shape around him, trapping him in a prison of water.

"Tidus!" Sora cried, trying to run over to free him. But Saïx attacked him from behind, throwing him to the other side of the Underdrome.

Tidus tried to stay calm and find a way out of the water sphere—island natives had strong lungs as a matter of necessity, so he could hold out for a few minutes if he needed. But Demyx started playing another tune on his sitar, forcing the water pressure to increase on Tidus. He covered his ears as he felt them popping, feeling the pressure crushing his bones. He had to keep holding his breath so his lungs wouldn't collapse from the pressure before he even had the chance to drown. But his chest felt like a trapped balloon ready to burst.

A blade cut through the water prison, nicking his side before flipping to its flat side to knock him out of the sphere. As he fell on his hands and knees, choking and gasping for breath, he could hear someone fighting off Demyx behind him. Larxene threw several knives at him, but he rolled out of the way in time, ignoring his cut up back. She tried to fire electricity at him, but he dodged and grabbed some of her knives. They were small and designed for throwing, but at least he had a weapon now.

Larxene kept coming at him, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could dodge. Axel somehow got behind him, throwing his chakrams in a rushing fire attack. Taking his chances, Tidus leapt on one of the chakrams and hit the ground as the other smashed into Larxene. Before Axel could do anything more, Tidus ran forward with a chakram and the throwing knives and finished Larxene off. Then, seeing Xigbar aiming at Sora, he hurled the chakram at the spike gun, throwing off his aim. Sora took the opportunity to take on Axel while Tidus scrambled for a new weapon. He had just about reached Demyx's abandoned sitar when he heard the clank of crossed swords behind him and turned. A man in a red coat was holding off Saïx with his sword.

"Don't turn your back on the enemy," the man, Auron, warned, disarming Saïx.

"Uh, I won't," Tidus promised, feeling unusually intimidated by the swordsman.

As Auron attacked Saïx, Tidus grabbed the Nobody's oversized sword and felt the echoes of a berserker rage within it. He forced it down as much as he could and returned to battle, swinging at Xigbar like the sword was a baseball bat. It was really the only way he could control it, and it was working well enough for him. Xigbar fired spikes at Tidus, but he couldn't aim properly because of the swinging sword. He was constantly forced to back up until he bumped into Auron, who took him down with a swing of his own sword.

"Drop the sword," he instructed Tidus, who was all too happy to oblige. He had no idea how much longer he would be able to fight off its influence.

"What about Sora?" Tidus asked, panting. Auron motioned toward the young Keyblade Master, who was still fighting Axel. Tidus was about to run forward to help, but Auron held him back with his sword hand. It was then that Tidus noticed the man's other arm was held in his coat like in a sling.

"It's his fight," Auron informed. Tidus nodded and watched as Sora defeated Axel. As the body disappeared, Sora reached up to wipe away his tears, and Tidus remembered that Axel had died helping him find Kairi.

"Sora?" Tidus asked as his friend walked over.

"I'm all right," he answered. Upon hearing this, Auron started to walk away. "Wait, Auron!" He stopped. "Um, well, this is Tidus…"

"We met," Auron replied.

"Sorry," Sora commented. "I didn't think this through."

"I can see that," Auron said.

"It's just when I heard your memories and felt what was in your heart, I wanted to do something to help," Sora explained. "And I thought that maybe…"

"We just wanted to help," Tidus insisted.

"You look like the Tidus of my world," Auron admitted. "But you're not the same. If anything, Sora's closer to him—he's just as much of a crybaby." Sora frowned at this, but kept his mouth shut.

"I know," Tidus answered. "But ever since Sora came back, I've been wondering about the other worlds and about memories. Some people can forget their world of origin, or forget everything about their past. And for a while, I was worried it might have happened to me. I couldn't remember the islands being destroyed by Heartless, and for a whole year, I couldn't remember that Sora had ever existed. And with every new story I heard, I began to wonder a little more about the worlds, that maybe there was another person in a different world who looked and acted just like me."

"Near the end of his story, Tidus thought much the same," Auron replied.

"He did?" Tidus asked. "Then what did he find out?"

"It doesn't matter," Auron said. "Write your own story rather than try to follow someone else's." And with that, he handed Tidus his own sword.

"Uh, thanks," Tidus replied in surprise. "But aren't you going to need this?"

"I'm returning to the Farplane," he explained. "And if I need another weapon, I can find one."

"Thanks, Auron," Tidus replied as the swordsman walked off.

"You okay?" Sora checked.

"Yeah," Tidus replied, looking at the sword. It was long, but not as heavy as Saïx's blade had been. He would grow into it. "Wait, where's Hades?"

"Ran off again," Sora answered. "He does that when he knows he's losing. Come on, let's get back. I'm exhausted."

"Yeah," Tidus agreed. "And I've got a story to start."

"**Your Story" is a liberal translation of "Kimi/Anata ga ita Monogatari," by See-Saw for the _.hack_ games. I apologize if I'm not completely canon with Auron since I haven't played _Final Fantasy X_, but I read through a script of it and researched the story and characters as thoroughly as I could.**


	3. Track 03

Streets to the Summer  
Track 03: "To the Door of Mystery"

Hayner was lying on the couch, throwing darts when a young woman peered into the usual spot. He raised an eyebrow in confusion when she looked at him.

"Excuse me, are you Pence?" she asked.

"No, I'm Hayner. Why are you looking for him?"

"I'm Aerith, a friend of Sora's. We need his help."

Now, Hayner sat up. "He went shopping with Olette, so I don't know when they'll be back. How fast do you need him?"

"It's nothing world-shattering," Aerith assured. "It's a computer problem in Radiant Garden that has us all stumped. Sora said Pence was better with computers than Cid, Leon, and I are."

"How bad is it?" Hayner asked.

"A friend of ours needs some information that we can't seem to find. Tron, our main program, needs help and Sora isn't used to computers—they don't have many of them in the Destiny Islands."

"Yeah, Pence should be able to help," Hayner agreed. "He's good with most difficult systems. Anyway, sit down and relax while you wait for him. I can get you something to drink if you need."

"Oh, no, I'll be fine," she replied, sitting on the couch. "Thank you, though."

"So, um," Hayner started, feeling a little awkward around her. "Got anything you want to talk about, or?"

Aerith giggled. Teenage boys were always funny at this stage. "Well, I do have a few stories that you might like to hear."

When Pence and Olette finally got back from Market District with a couple of bags for the usual spot, they saw Hayner listening in rapture to Aerith. Pence grinned as Olette burst into giggles, waking Hayner out of his reverie into sudden embarrassment. Aerith giggled too before getting to her feet.

"Hello, Pence?" she asked, sticking out her hand. "I'm Aerith from Radiant Garden."

"Nice to meet you," Pence answered, shaking her hand. "This is Olette, and you already met Hayner."

"I'm sorry to interrupt you and your friends, but Sora said you might be able to help with a computer problem we're having."

"Oh?" Pence asked. "What kind of trouble?"

"We need to access some files, but we can't seem to reach them. Cid, Leon, and I can't think of anything."

"Okay, I'll take a look at it."

She smiled. "Thanks."

* * *

Sora handed Pooh's storybook to Marlene and Denzel, warning them, "Be careful with this, okay? They're friends of mine." 

"Okay," Denzel promised while Marlene smiled.

"Come on!" she urged, taking him and the book out to the front steps of Merlin's house.

Aerith walked in the door with Pence just as Denzel and Marlene ran out. Pence frankly looked amazed at everything in Radiant Garden, and seeing Cid's computer, asked, "Is that it?"

"Thanks for coming," Sora answered. "No, the main computer is just off of Ansem's study. It's a bit of a walk from here."

"Why don't you explain things on the way?" Aerith suggested. "I'll stay here and watch Marlene and Denzel."

"All right then," Sora agreed, leading his friend out.

"Ansem," Pence commented. "Do you mean the Heartless or the one who ruled here?"

"The original, Ansem the Wise," Sora clarified. "The one we knew as DiZ."

"So what's the information you need to find?"

Sora's voice was grim. "Our friend Tifa showed up again and asked for our help. When she and our other friend Cloud were younger, Xehanort and Ansem's other apprentices experimented on them."

"What kind of experiments?" Pence asked, horrified.

"We're not sure, but it split Cloud's heart and created Sephiroth. Tifa thinks that if she can figure out exactly what happened, she can help him. He's been gone for a while, trying to win the fight against his darkness."

"And his darkness is Sephiroth," Pence realized.

"Yeah. Tifa also wants to know what her role is in all this, and what happened to others in the project."

"There were more?"

"Yeah. She remembers it was called Project: Advent Children, and children all over Radiant Garden were taken. One of them was Cloud's big brother figure, Zack."

"So if Cloud knows what happened to Zack, it might help him put his past to rest," Pence guessed.

"That's what we all hope," Sora replied. "Aerith and Tifa are worried about him. He's been their friend for a long time, but they don't know how to help him. And Leon doesn't think this is a good idea, but he's going along with it anyway. Aerith talked him into it—she can get him to do just about anything."

"Are they together?" Pence asked. The way Sora worded it made him curious.

"I'm not sure. I think so, but Aerith also likes Cloud. And of course, Tifa likes him enough that she'll follow him anywhere. I think this is just one of those things that they'll explain to me when I'm older." He made a face and then grinned. "Of course, they tell Yuffie the same thing."

After a long, twisting walk around the grounds, they finally made it to Ansem's lab. Leon was typing at the computer, his Gunblade left aside, and Tifa was standing in a corner talking to Cloud.

"Cloud?" Sora asked. He looked over. "I thought you were still gone. Did you defeat Sephiroth?"

Cloud smiled humorlessly. "That's the thing about fighting your darkness. It's a never-ending battle."

"Hi, I'm Pence," the Twilight Town boy said. "I came to help."

"We could use it," Leon admitted. "I can't do anything more, and Cid left a while ago to rest. Tron thinks the information might be hidden in encrypted files, but we can't access them here."

"Do you think you can find it?" Cloud asked.

"Sora thinks they can," Tifa affirmed. "That's enough for me."

"I'll get you two into the Pit Cell," Leon informed. "Tron's waiting."

"Okay," Sora answered. To Pence, he added, "You're going to love this."

They turned to face the digitizer on the back wall. A laser shot out and completely disassembled them into data before reconstructing them in the Pit Cell. When it was done, Pence stared at everything in disbelief.

"This is amazing," he commented.

"Welcome to the system," greeted a man in front of them. "I'm Tron, the main program."

"I'm Pence. I'm here to help."

"He helped us with one of Ansem's computer programs back in the User world," Sora added. "I think he'll be able to help us find the missing files."

"That's great," Tron declared. "But we have a problem—the files will probably be in the Central Computer Core, so we'll have to take the Solar Sailor."

"Oh yeah," Sora remembered. "The Heartless keep attacking us on the flight. You'll be in a lot of danger, Pence."

"I've got that taken care of," informed Leon's voice. There were a few blinking lights and swirls of data, and Pence found himself holding a rod-like weapon about half the length of his arm. "That taser will fire out Thunder spells from a distance and deliver shocks in close combat. It's made from magic and technology, so you'll probably still have it when you get back."

"Thanks, Leon," Pence replied.

As they walked out of the Pit Cell, Pence looked at his surroundings in awe. He'd always been interested in computers, taking them apart and putting them back together, but this was unlike anything he ever could have imagined. It was even a far cry from the simulated Twilight Town he'd helped Sora, Goofy, Donald, and King Mickey into.

"Impressed?" Sora asked with a grin.

"Yeah," Pence replied. "I've never seen anything like this." But before he had the chance to thoroughly enjoy the wonder around him, some menacing looking programs came from around a corner.

"Heartless," Sora recognized, accessing his Keyblade. Pence pulled out his taser while Tron reached for the disc on his back.

For his first battle ever, Pence was doing pretty well. Normally, he left fighting to Hayner, or Seifer if he was around, but simple duck-and-cover tactics seemed to be effective against the Heartless. He knew how to dodge out of the way well enough from phys ed at school, so he followed it up with taser blasts. He made a mental note to thank Leon for the weapon; it suited him perfectly.

Once the battle ended, they took a lift to the Solar Sailor dock, and Pence stared at the Sailor in amazement.

"This is the Solar Sailor, the only method of transport to the Central Computer Core," Tron explained. "I can give you a few pointers on how to pilot it if you'd like."

"Thanks," Pence replied, absolutely elated. He felt like an extremely little kid; he couldn't wait to tell Olette and Hayner about all of this!

Tron started up the Sailor and started showing Pence the controls. He caught on quickly, and soon Tron had him piloting it alone. Pence grinned as the Sailor flew along its track, taking occasional glimpses to the ground below. He had never flown anything before—trains were the primary means of transport back home, and there were very few aircrafts. Riding in the Gummi Ship for the first time had been a massive adrenaline rush for him, Hayner, and Olette, but it couldn't quite compare to how he felt flying the Sailor.

There was a sudden jolt, and Sora cried, "Heads up, Pence!" He turned to see about a dozen Heartless on the Sailor.

"They're weighing down the Sailor," Tron explained as he activated the autopilot. "We have to get rid of all of them."

Pence was careful not to fire any Thunder blasts out of fear of damaging the Sailor, but his taser made an excellent shocking-bludgeon against the Heartless. It wasn't as good at blocking, however, so Sora either threw up a Reflectaga near him or ran in to block with his Keyblade when Pence was in trouble. But the Sailor was slowly falling from its track. Throwing the Heartless off was out of the question—they'd just destroy the Sailor from underneath. Pence finally got as close as he could to some Heartless and fired a Thunder at them, limiting the destruction radius. As the sudden electrical current stunned them, Sora made a sweeping slash, taking down four in one blow. The Sailor's descent lessened, and the trio hurried to destroy the rest of the Heartless. One headed over to the control panel, with the intent to smash it, so Pence ran up behind it, placed his taser at its back and fired. It exploded, and he quickly grabbed the controls to try and fix their path as Sora and Tron finished off the last of the Heartless. Finally, he got the Sailor back on track.

"I thought you said the MCP controlled those things," Pence said breathlessly.

"It did, but the Heartless act of their own accord, like a virus," Tron explained.

"That is the worst virus I've ever had to deal with," Pence declared. "Don't you have a firewall against them?"

"We had to lower it in order to locate the files," Tron answered. "And in any case, the Heartless replicate by reprogramming different operations. We have to constantly figure out what's been corrupted and restore it at the same time as deleting the Heartless."

Sora looked hopelessly lost as Pence and Tron discussed the technical nature of these Heartless, so he decided just to enjoy the view. Pence was a good pilot and a fast learner; maybe Sora would teach him how to fly a Gummi Ship later. He'd probably catch on faster than Sora had—and with a lot fewer crashes too.

Once they disembarked, everything was back to business. They entered the Central Computer Core and Tron brought up a column of glowing data.

"This is where the Advent Children files should be," he explained. "When the MCP was de-rezzed, many of the files he'd corrupted were partially deleted."

"Is there a backup system?" Pence asked.

"There is," Tron answered, "but we have to go down there to access it." He pointed to the bottom of the data column.

"There are probably Heartless in the backup," Sora realized.

"I think I can take care of them without us having to fight," Pence declared. "I'll just need a terminal once we're down there."

"There should be one we can access," Tron answered.

"All right," Pence agreed.

"I'll head down first, just in case there are any Heartless waiting for us," Sora volunteered, holding out the Keyblade. As Tron deactivated the data column, Sora jumped into the Core. Tron jumped in soon after, and Pence followed after a short time. As expected, there were Heartless all around.

"Keep them busy," Pence requested, shooting a few while he headed for a terminal. "I need some time to work on this."

"No problem, Pence," Sora replied, encircling himself in a Firaga.

Pence started typing madly on the computer, hacking and programming with every skill he'd ever had to rely on for repairing computers back home. It was a program he'd been sure to memorize since he had to use it so often. But this time, it had to be bigger. This wasn't like fixing Hayner's computer when his firewall failed; he had to be sure this would protect the entire mainframe for all of Radiant Garden.

"How much longer?" Sora asked, straining to hold off some particularly tough Heartless.

"Done!" Pence cried, putting the program into place.

A sparkling, floating program appeared in the corridor and attacked the Heartless. Three more followed it. As the Heartless tried unsuccessfully to beat away the programs, Sora, Tron, and Pence escaped.

"What was that?" Sora questioned.

"An antivirus program," Pence explained. "I have to install them all the time back home, but I made sure this one would be stronger." Then, noticing the stunned look on Tron's face, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"We know all about the Users and that they made us all," he explained. "But actually meeting a Programmer face-to-face and seeing what he can do…it's overwhelming."

"Sorry," Pence apologized. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"Pence would never do anything to harm the system," Sora insisted.

"I know," Tron replied. "And seeing your abilities makes me certain that we will be able to find these files, and perhaps restore them."

Pence grinned. "Lead the way."

The corridor ended in a large, round room filled with thousands of files. Pence and Sora stared in awe at the magnificent data library around them. The entire digital history of Radiant Garden was before them, and it was absolutely incredible.

"I've scanned the new files about the war in the User world," Tron explained. "We didn't get any new files during much of that time, so everything went through an automatic save to the backup drive. The files should be in here."

Pence and Tron immediately got to work trying to locate and restore the Advent Children files. There were a lot of holes in many of the files because of the Heartless infestation, so they did their best to undelete the missing data. All in all, there were about seventy files on the project, and even with the undelete programs Tron and Pence were using, they were still partially unreadable. But what was there was enough to give a disgusting look into the experiment.

"It says here that a scientist named Hojo was working on it," Pence read once they got back to the Pit Cell. "He wasn't one of the apprentices, but he was working closely with them. The project was an attempt to bring out the inner darkness of a person, but without them losing their form and becoming a Heartless."

"They used children because their hearts didn't have as much darkness," Sora realized, sick to his stomach. "But for most of them, their hearts collapsed anyway. Xehanort actually stopped the project and locked away the bodies—I remember reading about it in one of the reports he wrote under Ansem's name."

"What does it say about me?" asked Cloud's voice.

Sora felt uncomfortable about reading Cloud's file; it felt eerily similar to feeling Auron's memories. But still, he answered, "It looks like you were a success, sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'?" asked Tifa's voice.

"Well, Cloud's heart didn't collapse from the pressure," Pence explained, "but it didn't go according to Hojo's plan either. Instead, it split into three pieces."

"Three?" came Leon's surprised voice.

"Yes," Pence answered. "The darkness created Sephiroth, and the light went into Tifa's heart. Cloud was left with the in-between."

"That explains why Tifa follows Cloud everywhere," Sora murmured. "She has part of his heart inside of him, just like I had with Kairi."

There was silence before Cloud finally asked, "And did you find anything about Zack?"

"He tried to get you guys out of there," Sora answered. "He realized what was happening, so he tried to get the rest of the kids to safety. But while he got you out, Hojo killed him."

"Xehanort found out about it, and he and the other apprentices took care of Hojo," Pence continued. "Most of the children who were still themselves got to safety, but there was one that didn't—Kairi."

"Close the files," Sora requested. "We've got the answers we were looking for." Pence nodded, and Tron sent them back to the User world.

"Thanks for your help," Cloud said, adjusting the sword on his back.

"You're not leaving again?" Sora asked.

"It's a never-ending battle," he repeated.

"But not one you have to fight alone," Tifa insisted. "Please, Cloud, we want to help. Stay here and we can."

"Sephiroth won't stop coming, and he'll hurt anyone close to me," he explained.

"But if you push everyone away, you're only increasing your darkness," Pence pointed out. "You're letting him win."

There was another brief silence. Leon broke it this time, mentioning, "We could use some help defending Radiant Garden. Sora can't be here all the time, and you and I fight together well enough."

"You're not alone, Cloud," Tifa reminded him. "Not anymore."

Finally, Cloud nodded. "I know. I've been chasing the darkness or running away from it for a long time. Now, I'm going to fight Sephiroth on my terms."

As the adults started slowly went back to business, Pence turned to Sora and said, "There was a file on Kairi in the Advent Children project. You said she doesn't remember much before coming to the Destiny Islands, except things in her nightmares. Don't you think you should look at it, just to help her out?"

"I'd do anything for Kairi," Sora admitted, "but I think her past should stay the way it is. She doesn't need the answers the way Cloud did. We're happy where we are." Pence nodded in agreement. "Come on, I'll show you how to fly the Gummi Ship."

An hour later, and Pence was zooming through asteroid fields with Sora at the copilot's controls. As stars and worlds went past in blurry streaks of light, he realized this adventure was probably the greatest thing that would ever happen in his life.

**Title comes from a line in Yuki Kajiura's "Key of the Twilight" from _.hack/SIGN. _Major thanks to Ryan Griffin and Shaun Garin for help and suggestions. **


	4. Track 04

Streets to the Summer  
Track 04: "Hard Day's Night"

Wakka was talking to Sora, Kairi, and Riku when Tidus pulled his rowboat to shore. The four of them watched as their friend tiredly pulled out his sword and its canvas carry-sling, and hefted it on his back before walking over to them.

"What's the matter with you?" Wakka asked.

"One of Mrs. Hasagawa's cats got in my window last night," he answered. The teacher was his next-door neighbor, and her funny little "kitties" had the habit of keeping him up at all hours of the night.

"You have a two-story house," Riku said somewhat skeptically. "How did that happen?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Tidus replied, yawning. "It kept me up most of the night. Then when I woke up this morning, my whole room was covered in toilet paper. I don't want to know how that happened either."

"You still have a little in your hair," Kairi pointed out, as Tidus collapsed into a heap in the sand.

"Just bury me right here," he muttered. "I'll be safe from any crazy cats." Then, realizing they were only a quintet, he asked, "Where's Selphie?"

"I called her," Kairi answered. "She's on a date today."

Tidus looked surprised. "Wow. She's over Hayner already? That's a record." Kairi playfully kicked him.

"You're just as bad with girls," she commented.

"Anyway, so why did you call us?" he yawned.

Sora grinned. "Pence gave me an idea when we were coming back from Radiant Garden. He said that if Gummi blocks could make ships so easily, they should be able to make smaller aircrafts too."

Tidus sat up, his interest piqued. "Aircraft? We're making an airship?"

"We don't have enough Gummi blocks for a big one, but we can probably put together a small one that should hold some of us," Riku explained. He pulled several books out of his backpack. "I went to the library earlier and found these. They've got diagrams of different kinds of small aircrafts." He pointed out one particular diagram. "We'd just need an engine and some propellers for this one, but it would probably work. This one is probably best…" He trailed off at the sound of barking.

"Nobody had a dog follow them, right?" Wakka asked as a golden dog came over. Kairi grinned.

"It's Pluto!" she recognized, and King Mickey's loyal dog came right over to her, wagging his tail excitedly.

Riku shook his head in amusement. "One of these days, I'm going to figure out just how he gets around like this."

"What's that you've got, boy?" Sora asked, rubbing Pluto's head. Kairi managed to pull an envelope out of Pluto's mouth.

"It's got the King's seal," she noticed, opening the letter.

"Does Mickey need us for something?" Riku questioned, worry apparent in his voice.

Kairi shook her head, a smile on her face. "Nope. Sora, you'd better read this." She handed the letter to her boyfriend. He looked completely surprised at the message.

"What's it say?" Tidus asked.

"They want to give me a medal," he said, still trying to get over the shock. "For everything I've done to save the worlds. And Riku's also going to get something, for bravery in facing down the deepest darkness." Riku looked just as surprised as he took the letter from Sora. "I was just doing what had to be done…"

"Hey, you deserve it," Wakka pointed out. "You coulda quit at any time. And you're still fighting when you don't really have to."

"But I…" Sora protested.

"The ceremony's tonight," Riku read. "And knowing Mickey, he won't take no for an answer. Face it, Sora—we're both stuck with awards."

Kairi gave him an evil grin. "That's the price of being heroes."

"Did you notice that it says you're supposed to come too?" Riku asked, pointing out a passage in the letter. "Since you're a Princess of Heart and all."

"We'll still have time to start building the airship, right?" Tidus questioned. "If the ceremony is tonight…"

"We can probably get started," Sora guessed. "But we're not going to get too far."

"Yeah," Kairi agreed. "We're going to need to find something to wear. We can't show up dressed in our everyday clothes."

"You know Mickey isn't big on fancy dress," Riku pointed out.

"But still," Kairi argued. "This is a special occasion. Sora can probably get away with wearing his drive clothes, since they're practically military dress. But you and I need something."

"Kairi, you don't have to worry," he replied. "I have some nice outfits, even if I don't wear them often. And I can loan Sora something if you think he needs it. Plus you're the mayor's granddaughter; you've got some good dresses you can wear. Don't panic."

"Yeah," Sora agreed, glad that the calmer Riku handled the most of it. "We'll be fine, trust me."

She sighed, "All right," and finally relented on the issue.

"Okay, then let's start on that airship," Sora decided.

The four of them worked for the next two hours, until Tidus finally collapsed and fell asleep in the sand, and Wakka and Riku got in an argument about the mechanics. Wakka, who wasn't very good with machines, incorrectly installed the few engine parts they did have, and Riku lost his patience when he tried to start them and they nearly blew up. Sora tried to break up the fight and nearly had to call on his Keyblade when he was pushed out of the way and almost fell on Tidus. When Riku and Wakka showed no signs of stopping their argument, he and Kairi _did_ call on their Keyblades—Sora with the Kingdom Key in front of Riku, and Kairi with Sanctuary in front of Wakka.

"I can't believe _I've_ got to break this up," he said. "Look, this airship turned out to be a lot harder than we thought. Let's just give up for now and try again later."

"By then, we'll probably be able to get engine parts and help," Kairi added. "We can ask someone who knows more about Gummi Ships and how to put one together, rather than trying to guess by book diagrams."

"Cid would help," Sora reminded them. "Or Chip and Dale—we're going to Disney Castle later, so we'll have the chance to ask them for pointers."

Riku's shoulders sagged a bit as he said, "I'm sorry, Wakka. I didn't mean to blow up at you like that. I just haven't been sleeping well lately, and I guess I took it out on you."

"Nightmares again?" Wakka guessed. Hesitantly, Riku nodded. It used to be Kairi who had to deal with them the most; Riku only had them sporadically. But now they were coming more and more frequently. "I understand. Just warn us next time before you start picking fights, ya?"

"Yeah," he promised. "I'm working on it. It's just hard to deal with sometimes—things I have to do on my own." He said this while looking at Sora, who was constantly trying to help him with problems he didn't understand.

"Let's just wake up Tidus and go home, then," Kairi decided, letting Sanctuary vanish. "We'll put the airship away for now and work on it another time."

They pushed what they had built under the treehouse and covered it with a tarp, and Riku and Sora put the remaining parts in a cave for safe keeping. Once they were done with that, they woke up Tidus and half-hauled him into Wakka's boat, since no one wanted to risk letting him row in such exhaustion. His own boat was tied to the back of Wakka's.

"I'm just gonna sleep for the next three hours," he mumbled. Then, remembering something, he sat up, nearly overturning the boat. "Hey, Sora!"

"What?" he called back.

"Can I borrow your gloves? I want to practice with my sword later, but I keep getting blood blisters."

"Sure," Sora agreed.

"Thanks," Tidus replied. "I need to get some when I have the money. I don't know how Auron managed to use that sword when he was alive—my hands are all bloodied up from holding it."

"I guess you just grow into it," Sora suggested. "Even with those gloves, I got blisters on my fingers from the Keyblade."

"The untold story of heroes," Riku sarcastically added.

"I'm sure you got blisters all over your hands from Soul Eater," Sora argued.

"Why do you think they're all callused now?" he replied. "I didn't have any fancy gloves to protect my hands." Sora made a face. Pulling onto shore, Riku continued, "Anyway, Sora and I better get ready for Kairi's inspection. It'll probably take until the time we actually go before she approves of what we're wearing."

"Funny," Kairi muttered, and from that comment, everyone could tell how nervous she was. Pluto seemed to sense it too because he jumped out of her boat and swam to shore, making her laugh. When she pulled her boat in, she turned to Wakka and asked, "Are you two going to be okay?"

"Sure," he said. "We'll find a way to entertain ourselves once Tidus wakes up."

"No cats," Tidus mumbled.

* * *

Sora pulled out his drive clothes and started looking for a decent pair of shoes to wear with them. Somehow, he didn't think Kairi would let him get away with wearing sneakers. 

_Riku probably has something I can borrow,_ he thought, heading next door. He was surprised when Riku opened the door—the older boy was dressed in a loose black hooded shirt over a silver long-sleeved shirt and loose black slacks.

"When did you get those?" Sora asked. He'd never seen his friend dressed in that before.

"The mother of a friend I made this week—during my random travels," he explained. "Remember how I told you that I tried to stop a robbery?" Sora nodded; Riku had tried to stop a phantom thief who was supposed to steal a painting. It turned out that the thief was trying to steal it for a good reason—the painting had a great deal of magic that needed to be sealed, and its power attacked them badly. The rest of the details were sketchy, but Riku wound up learning those sealing techniques from a family of dark magic specialists. "Mrs. Niwa made this in case I ever needed it," Riku continued.

"That was nice of her," Sora commented.

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "I _told_ Kairi I had something to wear. So what do you need?"

Sora laughed sheepishly. "I need to borrow some boots or something. All I really have are sneakers."

"I've got a pair you can have," Riku offered. "They're too small for me now. They'll probably be big on you, though."

"I'll grow into them," Sora assured. "Thanks."

An hour later, they met up at the Gummi Ship. Pluto bounded into the ship while Kairi, dressed in her best red dress, gave them a quick look-over before sighing in satisfaction.

"Will this do, Princess?" Riku joked, pushing his bangs out of his eyes while Sora made some comment about how he needed to cut his hair.

She smirked. "Yes, it will. Your Highness approves."

"Sora's wearing something other than sneakers—I think it's the end of the world," Tidus cracked, walking up behind them. Wakka was right next to him, snickering.

Sora shook his head at the jab at his shoes. "Came to see us off?"

"Yeah, and trying to get a little practice in," Wakka added. "A little blitzball, a little training—you know the drill. And now that Tidus is finally awake, we got the chance."

"All right," Sora replied, letting Kairi and Riku get into the ship before he did. "See ya!"

As the ship took off, Tidus and Wakka looked at the sky. The sun was starting to creep toward the horizon, and while it wasn't twilight yet, the afternoon was just about over. Wakka looked to Tidus and asked, "So what do we do?"

"I don't know."

* * *

"Why didn't you get it serviced before now?" yelled a very irate Chip. 

The yelling brought Donald and Goofy to the Gummi Ship bay, where they saw Kairi and Riku standing next to a very apologetic-looking Sora, whom Chip was yelling at.

"We never really got the chance," Sora explained. "With school and everything, there wasn't time to get over here to get it inspected, and now we've just been a little busy."

Chip groaned and hit his forehead. "How many times have you flown around in this?"

Sora looked to Riku for help before saying, "A couple of times. We went to Twilight Town and Radiant Garden a few times, and Tidus and I went to the Olympus Coliseum. And Riku's been going back and forth between Destiny Islands and…"

"Azumano," Riku provided. "The ship handled itself fine, so we didn't want to trouble you if there was the possibility that nothing was wrong." Sora shot him a thankful glance.

Chip sighed, "All right. We'll fix it up and customize it for you since you're going to have a lot of people sometimes. Just try and get it to us for regular tune-ups, okay?"

"We promise," Sora affirmed before waving to Donald and Goofy. "Hey, guys!"

Donald huffed. "You're late!"

"Sorry, that was my fault," Kairi apologized. "I was having trouble finding something to wear."

"It's okay, Kairi," Goofy assured. "The King had to take care of something in Cape Suzette anyway."

"Where's Cape Suzette?" Sora asked.

"It's the southernmost part of the kingdom," Queen Minnie answered, walking into the room. "Welcome. The King should be back shortly."

"Thank you for inviting us, Your Majesty," Sora said.

"It's our pleasure," Minnie replied. "Please follow me."

They walked out into the garden, and Kairi looked around at the plant sculptures in amazement. Her grandmother was fond of gardening, but her hibiscuses paled in comparison to these masterpieces of leaf and blossom. Daisy was sitting at a small table with a little duckling girl, playing tea party with her. Seeing that the gowns they wore were of a similar design to Minnie's, Kairi began to feel severely underdressed.

"Uncle Donald!" the duckling cried happily. "Aunt Daisy's been playing tea party with me. When are you going to marry her?" The others laughed as Donald started to look uncomfortable.

"Webby, meet Sora, Riku, and Kairi," he said, desperate to change the subject.

"It's nice to meet you," Kairi commented, but Webby stared at her in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"Those boys aren't mean to you?" she asked.

"Of course not," Kairi answered. "Sora and Riku are my friends."

"They don't stop you from playing with you?"

"Of course not."

Webby pouted. "You're lucky. My brothers are always going to different worlds and leaving me behind." From the description, Sora realized that her brothers had to be Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

"Well, sometimes they do the same to me," Kairi admitted, and Sora tried to look innocent while Riku smirked. "But it's because they have something to do that only they can do—just like the King when he has to leave Queen Minnie behind. Maybe it's the same for your brothers."

"I guess," Webby murmured.

"Thank you, Kairi," Daisy whispered, walking up to her. "I've been having a hard time helping her realize that. It's hard on her being the only girl her age around. Most of the other children around are boys."

"Dad! Dad!"

"Captain Goofy!"

Two pages from the guard ran over excitedly, while Daisy smiled and added, "See what I mean?" as Kairi stifled a giggle. Seeing the Queen and her guests, the two pages stopped in their tracks and sprang to an awkward salute.

"Sora, I want you to meet my boy, Max," Goofy introduced proudly.

"Nice to meet you," Sora said with a grin, shaking Max's hand. "These are my friends, Kairi and Riku."

"You're the one who was adventuring with my dad?" Max asked.

"Yep."

"That's so cool!"

Riku looked at Max's friend for a minute and leaned over to Goofy. "Max's friend—he looks familiar somehow…"

"That's because he's Pete's son," Goofy whispered. "Pete Junior, or P.J. He's been having a hard time since Pete was banished." Riku nodded, being sure to keep his expression completely neutral. He wasn't going to tell Sora about this little revelation. Sora wasn't someone who would judge a person based on his father's sins, but Pete had cast a shadow in Sora's memories—however small. P.J. probably had to deal with it enough. Riku wasn't going to add to it; he knew exactly what it was like to live with shadows.

Seeing that Sora was still chatting with Max and Webby was trying to get Kairi to play with her, Riku went up to P.J. and said, "That's an interesting shield. Can I see it?"

Surprised, P.J. answered, "Sure."

Riku lifted the golden shield and examined it. "Light for throwing, but strong enough to take a massive beating—orichalcum, right?"

"Yeah," P.J. replied. Then, awkwardly, he added, "My dad gave it to me before he…left."

"Was this when you were accepted as a page?" Riku asked lightly, returning the shield.

"Yeah, it was a gift."

"He must have been very proud of you, then. Most of the knights' shields are made of some kind of mythril mix, like Goofy and Max have. But a shield made almost entirely out of orichalcum—that's a sign of true pride." P.J. flushed, and Goofy looked at Riku with gratitude.

"Thanks, Riku," he said. "Maxie and I try and help him as much as we can…"

"But he's still isolated," Riku finished. "Darkness leaves many scars—most of which we can't see."

Goofy nodded in agreement. "Max is his best friend, but he's still really shy."

"I don't think that should be too much of a problem," Riku predicted. "As long as he has one close friend willing to do anything for him, I think he'll be fine."

"Sorry I'm late!" announced King Mickey as he came running to his guests. "Those air pirates were tougher than I expected, but I think Baloo should be able to take care of the rest. Welcome!"

Max and P.J. sprang to another awkward salute while Daisy and Webby curtsied—although Webby's was a bit clumsy. The others were a lot more relaxed; Mickey had told Riku (Kairi too during their time waiting on the Destiny Islands for Sora and Riku to return) not to bother with any formalities, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy had become close enough friends that they could ease out of their usual formality.

"We're glad to be here, Your Majesty," Kairi replied.

"Aw, you know you don't have to call me that," Mickey answered. "You guys are like family."

"Old habits die hard," Riku answered for his friends. "Are those pirates the same ones you mentioned the last time I visited?"

"Yeah," Mickey said. "They've been trying to cut off our supply route, and they're doing a good job of it too."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Sora asked.

"I've got it under control right now, but I might take you up on that offer," Mickey confessed. "They're just taking advantage of the kingdom since I was away." Then, in his typical manner, he shrugged away the stress and said, "Oh well. Let's forget this serious stuff—we're supposed to be celebrating!"

Kairi giggled and said, "That's right. I guess we should get to that celebration, then."

"Good thinking!" Mickey exclaimed. "Come on! We've got some heroes to award!"

* * *

Tidus shook the water out of his hair, resulting in it looking as spiky as Sora's. Turning to a grinning Wakka, he said, "Okay, I admit it—you win this one. But when I have a decent night's sleep, that'll change." 

"You napped for three hours," Wakka replied. "No matter how rested you are, you're still not going to beat…me…" He trailed off as three small women flew out of the general area of the Secret Place. "Uh, Tidus, do you see three fairies, or did I just have too much sun today?"

"I think I might have had too much sun too," Tidus agreed.

Seeing them, the lead fairy flew over to them. "Hi. I'm Yuna, and this is Rikku and Paine."

"Uh, hi," Tidus replied. "I'm Tidus, and he's Wakka."

"Wait a second," Wakka said, "I remember you from Sora's stories—you're those treasure-hunters, aren't you?"

"Yep!" Rikku declared. "That's us—the Gullwings!"

The more reserved Paine flew up and said, "We thought we got a lead on some treasure here, but so far, we haven't found it."

"We heard this was Sora's homeworld, so we were hoping we could get him to help," Yuna added.

"We could help," Tidus volunteered quickly, earning a raised eyebrow from Wakka. "I mean, you need someone to show you around the islands, and since Sora's gone right now, we're really the only ones available, right, Wakka?"

"Yeah, but we don't have any way of getting around the islands," Wakka reminded him. "All we have are our canoes and a half-started airship."

"An airship?" Rikku asked excitedly. "Where?"

"Over there," Wakka answered, pointing in the direction of the treehouse. Rikku headed over right away. "But it's nowhere near finished."

"Yeah, we started it this morning, but we couldn't finish…" Tidus protested.

"Don't worry," Yuna assured. "Rikku has a knack for mechanics. She can get that thing running in no time."

The boys dumbly watched as the fairy almost completely disassembled the airship and rebuilt it completely, disappearing and reappearing with engine components she must have managed to get offworld. In roughly twenty minutes, Rikku had assembled a small craft when Tidus, Wakka, Sora, Riku, and Kairi could barely get a frame built in two hours.

"All done!" she declared. "Granted, it's a bit small and it'll only hover on the water, but it's good enough to get us around these islands!"

"That's amazing," Tidus said.

"Let's get aboard!" Yuna decided.

Wakka took the controls, with Rikku showing him how to operate the hovercraft. Tidus stood on the front left "wing" of the craft, meticulously keeping his balance as he kept a lookout for islands to search. His sword lay at his feet, and Yuna flew over to inspect it.

"This is a nice sword," she commented.

"Yeah," he answered, smiling. "I got it from one of Sora's friends. It was a gift so I could write my own destiny."

"What's that island?" Paine asked, flying up.

Tidus blanched. "Trust me, you do not want to go there."

"What is it?" Yuna questioned.

"It's kind of a wildlife preserve," Wakka replied. "No one lives there, and there are a lot of pretty dangerous animals around."

"Sounds like the perfect place to hide treasure!" Rikku realized.

Tidus looked up at Wakka, and both boys had very worried looks on their faces. Suddenly, neither of them thought these fairies were quite in their right minds.

Even so, they disembarked and started walking around the island. Tidus kept shifting the weight of his sword on his back while Wakka kept his blitzball under one arm. If they were attacked, they wouldn't be able to hurt any animals, but they were fully prepared to defend themselves as much as they could with the least amount of pain for their opponents. It was just like the way they used to play-fight on the island, except it would be to save their lives.

The Gullwings spread out all over the small island, searching for any trace of treasure while their escorts kept nervously looking around, expecting something to leap out of the foliage at any minute. After a while, Yuna and Rikku returned and shook their heads. Suddenly, they heard something rustling in the leaves. Wakka threw his blitzball at whatever it was, intending to scare it off, but instead, a rather annoyed Paine caught it as she emerged from the bushes.

"You two find anything?" she asked, throwing the ball back at Wakka.

Rikku shook her head as Yuna answered, "Nothing. But there's a sandbar just across from here. We can get there easily."

Wakka and Tidus looked at each other and shrugged. A sandbar sounded pretty safe to them.

No less than five minutes later, they were running for their lives back to the known-to-be-dangerous island while a masse of enraged chocobos stampeded after them. Giant insects burst out of the trees as they pushed their way through the foliage, but they were lucky enough to avoid getting attacked. The cuts and bruises from the chocobo stampede was enough. The boys would have collapsed on the hovercraft if Wakka wasn't intent on piloting the thing away from the island. Then Tidus collapsed.

"Well, that didn't go as planned," Paine pointed out. The Gullwings, who had been far behind the boys in their run, flew onto the ship while carrying several bags of treasure.

"At least we managed to get some treasure out of it!" Rikku declared, displaying a ruby bracelet.

"Here's your share," Yuna said, handing each boy a bag with some small gems.

"That's it?" Wakka asked. "We nearly get killed, and this is all we get?"

"There's bound to be more somewhere nearby," Rikku decided. "That sandbar was the perfect place to guard those pieces." She pointed out another island. "Stop there! I think that's where there'll be more!"

"I'm starting to think this treasure hunt isn't all it's cracked up to be," Tidus commented as they walked deeper into the tropical forest.

"Now you realize it?" Wakka questioned.

"Don't worry," Yuna affirmed. "Nothing can go wrong here!"

"Aww, how cute!" Rikku cried, flying over to a small cub. "Look, Yuna! Isn't he adorable?"

"Wait," Tidus said, feeling his stomach drop. "That's a sabertooth mooselion cub."

"A sabertooth what?" Rikku asked, momentarily stopping in playing with the cub. The next thing they knew, the ugliest creature they had ever seen was bearing down on them for messing with her baby. It was another mad scramble back to the hovercraft for the boys as the Gullwings mysteriously vanished again. As they fell, ignored their injuries, and kept on running, they started to get the feeling that they were being used as bait.

"This is crazy," Tidus commented, clutching a broken wrist.

"The next time you sign up for anything just because some pretty fairy asks you to, leave me out of it!" Wakka complained.

The Gullwings flew onto the craft, once again toting bags of treasure. Yuna saw Tidus wincing and clutching his arm and said, "Let me see that." He reluctantly offered his arm to her. She placed her hands on his arm, and green energy flowed out into him. The pain slowly lessened as the bones knitted themselves back together. "There! That should be all better."

"A Cure spell?" Tidus guessed.

"Yep!" Rikku said. "Yuna's good with magic."

Wakka twitched. "Think on the next island, you can help us out in battle?"

"Fine," Paine agreed. "But we get a bigger share of the findings."

Wakka and Tidus looked at the little they had earned from their hard work and sighed. The sacrifices they were making for this treasure hunt were insane.

* * *

The Gummi Ship landed in its hiding place about an hour past midnight. Tired and grinning, the trio of heroes walked off to the other end of the island. Sora and Riku wore silver medals around their necks while Kairi—wearing a gold circlet around her head—fiddled with a set of communication devices. 

"It was nice of Mickey to make these communicators—one for each of us," she commented.

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "I'll head to Twilight Town tomorrow to drop off some for Hayner, Olette, and Pence."

Riku stopped suddenly at the sight of two half-conscious figures slumped in the sand. "Tidus? Wakka?" They just managed the strength to look over at him. "What happened?"

"Treasure hunt," Wakka answered. "With three of Sora's crazy friends."

"What crazy friends?" Sora asked.

"Gullwings," Tidus replied. "They helped us build the hovercraft."

"Well, did you find anything?" Kairi questioned.

Tidus winced. "A lot of pain."

"A _whole _lot of pain," Wakka added. "And sabertooth mooselions and chocobos and giant bugs and…"

"And we got some treasure," Tidus threw in, cutting Wakka off.

"How much?" Sora asked.

"Some jewels, and enough munny for me to buy my own pair of gloves," Tidus replied.

Deciding not to ask anything more, Sora, Riku, and Kairi half-carried half-dragged Tidus and Wakka to their boats and headed home after a long night.

**The title is from a Beatles song by the same name. Sabertooth mooselions are borrowed from _Avatar: The Last Airbender_, owned by Nickelodeon. P.J. and Max are from _Goof Troop_ and its sequels, and Webby is from _Duck Tales_. I have taken liberties with their characters to fit them into the _Kingdom Hearts _universe, and because I haven't seen either of these shows in many, many years. In addition, Cape Suzette and Baloo are from _Tale Spin_, and Mrs. Hasagawa and her "kitties" are from _Lilo and Stitch: The Series_. I may or may not have a story explaining her presence in the Destiny Islands.**

**This chapter is longer than the others because it is essentially two in one. Most of the chapters in "Streets" will not be so.**


	5. Track 05

Streets to the Summer  
Track 05: "Destati"

Sora spread strawberry jam on his toast while his mother turned the dial on the radio to the news. He'd just taken a bite when he heard reports of some kind of attack on the mainland, in the capital city of Odnalro:

"As of right now, we don't know what exactly is causing these attacks, but they appear to be black creatures half the size of a man and some kind of fighters in knight-like armor. Residents are urged to stay inside at night and lock their doors. No further details are known at this time."

Sora dropped the toast and raced to the phone, dialing Kairi's number. A few seconds later, Riku ran inside, looking worried.

"You heard it too?" he guessed.

"What's going on?" Ms. Kinyou asked. But Sora had already gotten through to Kairi.

"Did you hear the news?" he questioned. "Yeah, they're in Odnalro. I don't know why they'd head there—there's nothing for them. Yeah, maybe you're right. Yeah, he's here right now. Okay, I'll ask him." He put his hand over the mouthpiece and asked Riku, "You think some kind of sealing technique might help?"

"It might," Riku answered, "but I'd need a lot more power than I have."

Sora repeated the information over the phone. "Okay, we'll meet on the island and head over right away. Just give me a minute to eat something and get ready, and I'll be there."

"What's going on, you two?" Ms. Kinyou demanded as Sora grabbed the rest of his toast and ran to his room.

"It's kind of an emergency," he answered. "I'm not sure when we'll be back, but I'll call you!"

Sora's mother was forced to stare bewilderedly after her son and his best friend as they ran out the door, headed for the beach.

The children's island was just south of the main island of the Destiny Islands, where they lived. The mainland and Odnalro were to the east. When the boys met up with Kairi, all three were prepared for whatever they might find—pouches of munny in their pockets, armor and accessories on their persons, and necessary items stocked just in case. Sora took the helm of their hovercraft while Riku stared off into the distance. Riku was too distracted to pilot correctly. He didn't have enough power to seal off the mainland from the Heartless, but he did know how he would have that kind of power. It just involved something he really hated to have to do.

After a fairly long flight, they docked at the harbor. Sora and Riku tied the craft up while Kairi handed a hundred munny to a clerk. They tried to keep as low a profile as possible, but the earlier sense of urgency was still there. Each of them looked around carefully for any Heartless that might appear.

"So far, it looks like the Heartless aren't attacking in the daylight," Kairi noticed.

Riku gave a slight sigh of relief. "That's good. There are fewer people around at night, so we can keep a lower profile if that's the only time we have to fight."

"How much power do you think you'll need for a sealing technique?" Sora asked.

Riku produced several black feathers from a magically-created pocket dimension. "The Niwas gave me these to amplify my power in sealing, but it still won't be enough."

"What about with us?" Kairi asked. "Can you draw power from us?"

Riku looked extremely tense, and Sora wished he'd been the one to ask that question. "No. It can't come from light. My powers won't mix with it well." The next words seemed to be poisonous. "I need to use Ansem's form in order to access even that much."

It was as if a dead silence had completely taken over Odnalro. Sora and Kairi stared at their long-time best friend hating himself as he held onto a fistful of feathers while shaking with rage and fear. It had taken him the better part of a year to help him deal with what he'd done. He had gone to such lengths to avoid becoming like Ansem physically or mentally, and now he would have to go back and do it again.

Finally, Sora spoke: "What if I did it?" His friends looked at him. "If I can somehow bring out Roxas's power—maybe even take on his form—you could teach us how to do that sealing thing…"

"What if you get stuck that way?" Kairi asked. "I'll take on Naminé's form too."

Riku watched his two best friends offering to throw themselves away and risk living forever in the shadows of their Nobodies, and he suddenly felt sick. After everything they had gone through, they were willing to give their "selves" up for him. It was partially his fault they even had Nobodies in the first place. He couldn't let them do it; he was the one who was supposed to deal with all of this, not them.

But then, they would only do it anyway.

"I think I have a solution," Riku finally said. "Ansem alone won't have enough power, and I doubt Roxas and Naminé would either. But if all three of us do it, I think we have a chance." Sora and Kairi watched him intensely. "When I was in Azumano, there was someone else like me who could change forms to access a stronger power. The difference is that he knew how to change back, and he told me his secret. To take on the stronger form, he looks at a picture of the person who means the most to him but doesn't return his feelings. To revert, it's the same for the other form: whoever he cares about most who can't return the feeling. He tried it with me, forcing me back to my own form when I got stuck. But I think the secret for us would be for our other forms to concentrate on who _we _care about most—the connections within our hearts."

"I'll try it first," Kairi offered, and before anyone could refuse, she reached deep within her heart and started searching for Naminé. Finding her was like opening a door—they stared at each other for a second before walking past each other. In a faint glow, Kairi faded to Naminé.

"Naminé?" Sora asked.

She smiled. "Everything's going to be okay. Kairi and I made the transition easily—it should be just as easy to change back."

"Good," Riku answered, his whole body losing tension.

"You should probably try and only use Ansem's form in a battle," Naminé advised. "The shorter amount of time you stay in there, the less chance you get stuck."

"Hey, Naminé?" Sora asked. She turned. "Thanks. I'm not sure exactly what for, but I've meant to tell you for a while."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

"All right," Sora decided, "time for Roxas to come out."

Finding Roxas should have been easy, but Sora stood in the middle of the alley with his eyes closed, reaching and grasping for a power he couldn't manage to hold onto. Frowning, he concentrated harder, trying to incite the two Keyblades: Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Blond hair, blue eyes. A Struggle championship belt, a blue crystal, a taste for sea-salt ice cream. He only managed to hear Roxas's voice this time, urging him, "Try harder." His own words from two years ago came to mind: "I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power!" So he concentrated on Roxas's friends—the connections he had in their shared heart. Hayner, Pence, Olette. Seifer, Rai, Fuu, Vivi. Naminé. Axel.

And then something went horribly wrong. Sora was shifted back as Roxas came forward—but _both_ sides of Roxas: the ordinary boy from Twilight Town and the Organization's Number XIII, the Key of Destiny. Sora reached for him, trying to force his way forward, but he couldn't help. Roxas clutched his head, trying to reconcile his opposing personalities as he dimly heard Naminé and Riku calling out his name. The next thing he knew, he'd hit the ground and lost consciousness.

-------

A cool, damp cloth was on Roxas's forehead when he came to, and an old woman stood nearby. A bit farther away, Naminé looked relieved and Riku had a regretful look on his face.

"Don't try to move too much," the woman warned. "Your friends said you passed out in the heat."

"Ms. Jackson offered us a place to stay for a while," Naminé informed.

"You don't have to…" Roxas began to protest, but the woman held up a hand to stop all arguments.

"I already told your friend—Riku, was it?" He nodded. "I'm not leaving three kids to fend for room and board when I have plenty of room here. The inns around here can get too expensive, and your friends said you're not supposed to be here for very long. My grandson and great-grandson went out fishing this weekend, so you can borrow their rooms."

Roxas was frankly amazed at the old woman's insistence. She had no idea who they were—they could be ready to commit some kind of crime against her—and yet she was offering them room while they were in Odnalro. A whisper from Sora in the back of his mind said, "That's just the way things are in this world," and he realized he liked the feeling. No matter where you went, you would always be home.

"Thank you, Ms. Jackson," he said.

"Don't give me that 'Ms. Jackson' stuff," she replied with a grin. "Even my great-grandson, Jett, calls me 'Miz Coretta' when he's not calling me 'Nana.'"

"Miz Coretta," Riku interrupted, speaking for the first time, "where was that store again?"

"Halliburtons'?" she asked. "They're just down the road. You'll find them easy." Miz Coretta led Riku out, giving Naminé the chance to walk over to Roxas's bed.

"Are you okay?" she checked.

"Yeah," he answered, sitting up. He somehow couldn't help but smirk. "Figures that remembering Axel is what got me into this mess again."

Naminé smiled in response. "You and he always did manage to find trouble." Roxas tried to laugh, but his head started to pound, and he lay back on the pillow. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied. "It's just hard—there are two sides of me, and they're completely opposite. I want to be the Roxas from Twilight Town, but I'm still Roxas, the Key of Destiny." He then brought his hand to his chest. "And I think I strained something when Sora and I traded places—my chest feels heavy."

"It's the same for me," Naminé confessed. "Riku explained it to me: It's our hearts—we're not used to the weight of them."

"Makes sense," he agreed. "Just wish I could get used to my headache as easily."

"Riku went to a general store to pick up some aspirin for you," she explained. "Miz Coretta offered some, but Riku thought it would be better if we had some with us."

"He's avoiding me," Roxas said. Naminé lowered her head, not answering. She, at least, was on good terms with Riku. Roxas had defeated him; he didn't blame Riku for trying to get away.

Miz Coretta walked back into the bedroom, preventing any further talk on the subject. Handing Roxas a pill and a glass of water, she said, "Your friend went to pick some up, but I think you could probably use some aspirin now."

"Thanks," he replied, swallowing the pill.

"Dinner will be in half an hour, if you're feeling well enough to come down," she informed.

"I think I will, Miz Coretta," Roxas decided. "Thanks for the hospitality."

"I'm going to help Miz Coretta," Naminé said. "Just relax for now." Roxas nodded and closed his eyes to doze.

-------

Riku had come back just before dinner, which didn't give him and Roxas any chance to talk or reconcile. But they would be sharing the same room—Jett's—while Naminé took a spare bedroom usually reserved for Jett's mother, when she could make it to Odnalro. They would have to talk eventually.

"Hey, Riku?" Roxas asked as the other boy prepared a cot for himself. "I just wanted to let you know I don't blame you or anything." Though Riku didn't say anything, Roxas paid attention to his body language. He stopped holding himself as tensely as before. They were getting somewhere. "In fact, I'm the one who should be sorry."

Riku looked at him in confusion. "For what?"

"It's my fault you had to use Ansem's power in the first place," he pointed out. "I took advantage of your weakness after we fought those Heartless." Looking down, he confessed, "I really hate who I used to be."

"Xemnas manipulated you," Riku said. "Something he and his Heartless apparently had in common." After a brief silence, he added, "Thanks."

"No problem," Roxas answered. "You're a good guy—I know that much from Sora's memories. Although, you do have to loosen up."

"What?" Riku questioned, shocked at the comment.

"Yeah," Roxas replied. "You're too careful about what you say and do—you're calculating things too much. Sora's noticed it a lot, but he hasn't called you on it. Just act natural—the way you feel. No one's going to hate you for it."

Riku smiled. "So you're saying I should just follow my heart?"

"That's what it's there for," Roxas answered.

Riku nodded and removed three feathers from his pocket dimension. "We should probably get started on the seal. If you're feeling well enough, get Naminé."

"All right," Roxas agreed, and walked over to Naminé's room.

A few minutes later, they walked out into the street, each holding a feather. Riku closed his eyes and shifted into Ansem's form, suppressing as much of whatever was left of the Heartless's personality. Once he was sure he still had his mind, he said, "We'll need to work quickly. Heartless will probably attack soon." Activating Way to the Dawn, he added, "Summon your Keyblades and place the feather on top of them."

Roxas channeled his power into a single Keyblade, smiling with nostalgia when the form that appeared was Bond of Flame. He placed the feather on top and watched as it glowed dark blue and started hovering over the blade. Threads of silver magic arced out and connected to the feather in Riku's (Ansem's? Roxas decided that it would just be easier to call him Riku; it was the heart's name, anyway) possession. They formed part of an intricate circle—one-third, judging by the size of the arc and the number of feathers. But as he looked over to Naminé, he saw that she was having a lot of trouble.

"What's wrong?" Riku questioned.

"I can't access the Keyblade," she answered. "Something's wrong!"

Roxas nearly smacked himself when he realized the problem. "Sanctuary was created from Kairi's heart and soul. Naminé's not a normal Nobody—she doesn't share Kairi's soul, exactly, so it won't work for her. She needs one from her own soul."

And as if things couldn't get any worse, the Heartless chose that opportunity to attack.

Roxas and Riku quickly moved into action, slashing through Heartless at speeds faster than most humans were capable of. Naminé, determined not to be a handicap, fought with fists and feet against the Shadows and Soldiers, leaving the tougher ones to her friends. It was tough going without a weapon, but she wouldn't let that stop her. In the meantime, Roxas and Riku tried to ensure there weren't too many for her to handle. Trying a variation of Riku's combination attack with Sora, they used rapid-fire blasts of magic and lightning-fast slashes before combining their power in a single wave of energy—using the neutral twilight alongside darkness, where Sora's light would oppose it and create a reaction the Heartless were caught in. They landed in the street with Heartless falling all around them. But the light of the released hearts helped the streetlights reveal a second wave, this time of Nobodies.

"Not them too," Roxas growled. "Naminé, stay back!"

"Roxas, they shouldn't cause us too much trouble," Riku reasoned, but Roxas had already run toward the Nobodies. They were only Dusks, probably lost from Twilight Town. A good rule of thumb about Nobodies was that they normally didn't attack unless provoked. And since Roxas was provoking them, Riku knew that he had to stop him.

Roxas savagely tore through the Dusks, encircling himself with Firaga to increase the effect. Three disappeared in thorny trails of twilight magic. He could hear Naminé and Riku (and even inside his heart, Sora) telling him to calm down and stop attacking, but he blocked them out and continued. He twisted behind two of them to attack their unprotected backs, but he didn't notice another Dusk there. It slashed him across the back, causing him to fall and drop the Keyblade. Riku managed to get in and block any further attacks with Way to the Dawn, giving Roxas a chance to summon the Keyblade back into his hands. But when he leapt up to continue his vicious battle, he had Oathkeeper and Oblivion with him. The twin Keyblades slashed left and right in blurs of white and black until no one was standing other than Riku and Roxas, who himself was hunched over in exhaustion. Deciding it would probably be better, Riku reverted to his normal form and approached Roxas. He was panting, his rage burnt out. But Riku wasn't taking any chances. He kept his approach slow and gradual, and even Naminé was cautiously making her way toward them.

"They probably wouldn't have attacked us," he said. "For all we know, they would have left."

"No," Roxas gasped. It seemed his rage was still smoldering. "They'll attack anybody for no reason, and they fight to kill! They're empty and vicious. I hate them."

His shoulders sagged as Oathkeeper and Oblivion disappeared, and he nearly passed out. Silently, Riku and Naminé brought him back to Miz Coretta's house. They knew without him having to tell them that what he really hated was himself for being like those Dusks once.

-------

Naminé hardly slept that night. What sleep she did get was sporadic and light. Finally, around sunrise, she got out of bed, took some crayons and paper Riku had gotten her at the general store, and went out on the porch. The house faced east, giving her a good view of the growing light over the houses. She took out a gray crayon and started lightly drawing the houses. Next came soft yellow for the sunlight. A small voice deep within her heart whispered, "It's strange how much alike we are. The way you draw looks a lot like the way I do." Naminé smiled as she added the next color, blue for the trim on the house in front of her. From Kairi's memories, she knew about the scratched drawings in the closed-off Secret Place. Kairi was never one for drawing anywhere else, the way Naminé liked to. Her artistic talent mostly revealed itself in thalassa shell crafts and poetry written to her memories.

"You're up early," Miz Coretta noticed, walking up from behind her. Naminé jumped; she'd been caught up in her drawing that she hadn't even heard the door open. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," Naminé replied.

"I should remember those artistic types get lost in what they do so easily," Miz Coretta said. "Kayla, a friend of my great-grandson's, is always painting or sculpting. We have to pry her away from her art to get her to eat." Naminé giggled. "I'm just a little surprised that you're up so early after last night." The way she looked at Naminé left no room for denial: she'd seen it all.

"I'm sorry if we caused any trouble," she apologized. "We're just trying to make sure those things don't attack again."

"I knew there was something different about you three the minute I saw you," Miz Coretta explained. "I've been around long enough to know these things. I knew just by looking at him that Roxas hadn't passed out from the heat, and I could see that Riku was walking on eggshells around him. And seeing that fight last night only confirms it."

Naminé lowered her head and put her drawing aside. "The truth is that Naminé Umino and Roxas Kinyou don't exist. We're more or less shadows of Kairi Umino and Sora Kinyou of Thalassa Island in the Destiny Islands. Riku has a shadow of his own, Ansem, who he doesn't like giving into. Riku, Kairi, and Sora heard about the attacks here and wanted to keep them from happening. They've been fighting these same creatures, the Heartless, for a long time now, but they've never appeared on the mainland. Riku decided to try a magical seal over the area, but he needed help. Sora and Kairi didn't have the right kind of magic to do it, so they traded places with Roxas and me. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Miz Coretta answered. "You three are trying to protect people you don't even know. You say that Naminé and Roxas don't exist, but as far as I'm concerned, you're more than you give yourselves credit for. And as long as you need help, you're welcome to it."

Naminé smiled. "Thanks, Miz Coretta."

"Anytime, child," she answered. "Now come on inside and help me make breakfast. Those lazy boys need to wake up soon."

Miz Coretta walked back inside, but Naminé lingered for a minute to add the last touch of blue trim to the house on her paper. Then she took everything and stood up. But something fell out of her pocket as she did, and she bent over to pick it up. It was Kairi's thalassa shell charm, and attached to it was a small glass star. When she detached it from Kairi's charm, the star generated a new Keyblade. It was crystalline, giving it the illusion that it was delicate, but Naminé could feel its strength. It had a star motif, and the design looked like something out of one of her drawings.

"Simple and Clean," she murmured. The Keyblade, almost as though accepting its name, vanished in glittering light. Smiling, Naminé went inside to help with breakfast.

It was a few minutes later when Roxas woke up. Riku was already awake, making his bed. Neither of them had spoken since the battle the night before, but they hadn't really needed to. Once Roxas got dressed, they headed to the dining room. Miz Coretta and Naminé were still cooking, so they helped set the table. As he pulled a jar of jelly out of the refrigerator, Roxas suddenly remembered something.

"Miz Coretta?" he asked. She turned from the stove. "I forgot to call my mom. Is it okay if I call her from here?"

"Of course," she answered. "There's a phone in Jett's room if you need it."

"Thanks," he replied, walking back to the bedroom.

He locked the door behind him and traded places with Sora without a word. Sora blinked at the abrupt change and muttered, "Wonder what's wrong with him," before picking up the phone and dialing his home number.

It only rang once before a frantic voice on the other end asked, "Hello?"

"Hi, Mom."

"Sora, what's going on? You ran off without telling me anything—where are you?"

"I'm in Odnalro right now," he explained as calmly as he could. For some reason, he found himself fighting back tears. For the life of him, he couldn't explain why. "Kairi and Riku are with me."

"What's going on? I went to Riku's parents, and they said he hadn't told them anything either, and Kairi's grandmother just said there was something you had to do and you'd be home safe in a couple of days."

Tears were definitely rolling down his cheeks now, and his voice was cracking. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'd tell you everything if I could… You just have to trust me. I love you."

He hung up the phone and wiped his tears before once again trading places with Roxas. Roxas hadn't meant to disturb Sora like that, but he couldn't help it. He'd never before realized how little he had: he didn't have a family or friends or even a home. He truly was nobody. Sora had everything Roxas suddenly craved, and he would do anything to protect them. Roxas silently vowed to do the same.

After taking a moment to collect himself, he went back to the dining room, where everyone else was already eating. He helped himself to some eggs and toast as Naminé said, "Roxas, I was just telling Riku—Miz Coretta knows."

"Everything?" he asked.

"Everything," Miz Coretta answered.

"We were trying to figure out how to fix our problems with the seal while you were on the phone," Riku explained.

"What did you come up with?" Roxas asked, scooping a forkful of eggs in his mouth.

"From the sound of it, part of your problem is with yourselves," Miz Coretta explained. "Naminé needed a Keyblade of her own, and Riku needed to prove to himself that he could overcome his shadow. And you, Roxas, need to stop focusing on the Heartless and focus on what's more important—your friends and the other people you want to protect."

"That makes a lot of sense," Roxas agreed.

"I think what's best for you three is to find a place where your seal will hold better," Miz Coretta continued. "You said something about the heart of the world?" Riku nodded and seemed ready to interrupt, but Miz Coretta added, "A heart's only as strong as the people in it. Maybe you need to go where there are more people and use the strength of their hearts for the seal."

"I didn't think of that," Riku confessed. "I think it'll work."

"The marketplace is probably the best place to start," Miz Coretta advised. "It's always busy on weekends, when the kids are out of school. Just be sure to have some fun yourselves."

"That sounds good," Naminé agreed. "I would like to see everything while we're here."

"All right then," Riku decided. "We'll check the marketplace this afternoon." He looked at his companions for a minute before looking back at Miz Coretta, who nodded. This was exactly what Roxas and Naminé needed.

-------

Past noon, Riku, Naminé, and Roxas set out for the marketplace. In truth, none of them expected to see what they did. Riku was used to fairly small crowds from the Destiny Islands, and he'd spent most of his journey to other worlds hidden in the shadows. The largest crowd Roxas could remember was from the Struggle in the digital Twilight Town. Naminé hadn't even seen worlds beyond Castle Oblivion, Twilight Town, and the World That Never Was, spending most of her time in hiding after she and Riku left DiZ.

That said, the marketplace looked huge to them. It was a several-block-long stretch of shops, restaurants, umbrellas, and palm trees and filled with what looked like half the capital city. Riku had to admit to himself that this was the first time in a long time he'd been pleasantly surprised.

Deciding to leave it in his friends' hands for now, he asked, "So where to first?"

They decided to get shopping out of the way first, or rather, shopping itself seemed to decide to go first. Naminé peered into a shop only to be fussed over by the employees. They suggested numerous outfits to her and gave her sample after sample of creams for her pale skin. In the end, a slightly overwhelmed yet smiling Naminé walked out with a dress, a hat, and some sunscreen. Roxas and Riku chuckled as they headed to a sunglasses stand and started looking around. They had just paid for a few pairs when Riku overheard people talking:

"Did you see those things last night?" asked one girl. "They nearly got Riley!"

"Is she okay?" another asked.

"Yeah, you know her—she can fight her way out of almost anything. It was just scary."

"I know. And with all the disappearances—someone can be caught by one of those things one minute and disappear the next!"

"I hope we can find them."

Riku inwardly sighed, knowing the truth they didn't. The people who "disappeared" weren't coming back. And it wouldn't stop unless he could seal off Odnalro from the Heartless.

"Hey," he called before Roxas and Naminé could look for another shop. "I think we need to do it now." They nodded and followed him out of the marketplace.

This had to be done in an area where they wouldn't be bumped or in any other way disturbed, so they slipped behind a shop so Riku could change forms. All three activated their Keyblades—Way to the Dawn, Bond of Flame, Simple and Clean—and started to place feathers over them when the screaming started.

Miz Coretta said that the seal would stick if there were enough hearts to ground it. Unfortunately, that was also the reason why the Heartless came.

Attracted by the hearts, magic, and Keyblades, they slunk into the marketplace and began to attack. Some people tried to fight them back, with mixed results. More fled, with the Heartless taking chase. At least four people lost their hearts in the chaos. As Roxas, Riku, and Naminé ran in, slashing their Keyblades left and right, they swore that no more would fall.

"There's too many!" Riku declared, firing a Dark Aura at an oncoming wave of Heartless. Meanwhile, Naminé's delicate-looking Keyblade was slicing through more Shadows in an awkward yet effective charge.

Roxas unleashed a Firaga as Heartless threatened to jump him. "I know, but we at least have to let the people get out. Do you know any barrier spells?"

"No," Riku answered. "Seals, but no barriers."

Roxas managed to pause for a moment and saw the carnage around him. Heartless were tearing apart the marketplace, trying to steal new hearts. Naminé and Riku couldn't hold them back no matter what they tried.

_And I once helped cause this just to get a heart,_ he realized. But no more. Now, he had people to protect, like Miz Coretta, Riku, and Naminé. And the people he protected had people they wanted to protect, and so on and so forth. All three of them would die to protect these people.

Riku and Naminé noticed their power leaving them before Roxas noticed the surge into his body. His clothes turned silver as his Keyblade disappeared, leaving Way to the Dawn and Simple and Clean hovering around him. He flew toward the Heartless, wiping them out with ease. All around him, Heartless exploded at the touch of the floating Keyblades and his boosted magic. He let no one escape; the Heartless that chased after the running civilians were quickly destroyed. The afternoon sky was filled with released hearts heading back to Kingdom Hearts.

When it was all over, he hovered over to his friends, and Riku gave him one of the feathers, then gave another to Naminé, and kept the last for himself. Roxas reverted from Final Form, channeling the power into the feathers as he, Naminé, and Riku regained their Keyblades. The power combined from the Final Form linked the feathers together, creating an ornate silver circle with a large Keyhole in its center. Riku and Roxas lifted their Keyblades, but Naminé held back, unsure. Sanctuary hadn't been made to lock and unlock Keyholes, and she doubted Simple and Clean could do it either.

"It'll work, Naminé," Riku assured her. Nodding, she lifted her own.

Silver fire, like Riku's Dark Aura, left the tips of their Keyblades, connecting into a small sun. A single beam of silver magic left the sun and entered the Keyhole, giving a definitive locking sound. And just like that, it was over. The circle and Keyhole disappeared, as did the Keyblades. Riku reverted to his normal form as Roxas asked, "Did it work?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Nothing should be attacking here again. Come on. We need to get back to Miz Coretta's to get our stuff."

-------

It was a few days later when Sora returned to Odnalro, acting the part of an ordinary tourist to check up on Miz Coretta at everyone's request. It looked like her grandson, Jett, had come home; he was spending time with a boy who worked at the general store and an artist girl—Sora thought he heard their names mentioned as J.B. and Kayla. They looked like they were happy, and everything else seemed to be peaceful. No more reports came of Heartless attacks, limiting everything to just sporadic appearances on the Destiny Islands.

Suddenly, his communicator started flashing. He switched it on to hear Kairi ask, "Sora, have you seen Riku?"

"No," he answered. "I left here pretty early, and I thought he was asleep."

"Something's wrong," she warned. "I can't seem to contact him, and his parents called me asking if I knew where he is."

"Oh no," Sora groaned. He should have known better than to expect Riku to easily get over his transformation into Ansem's form, even if temporary. "Kairi, call King Mickey and wait for me at the island. We'll figure out what to do from there."

**Title from the piece "Destati" from the _Kingdom Hearts_ soundtrack.** **As it means "Awaken," I thought it was fairly appropriate. Miz Coretta, Riley, Jett, Kayla, and J.B. are all from Disney Channel's _The Famous Jett Jackson_, and Miz Coretta's easy acceptance of Naminé and Roxas is based on her easy acceptance of Silverstone from the movie. Roxas's comment about his heart feeling heavy comes from Hayao Miyazaki's version of _Howl's Moving Castle._ Major thanks to Lady Iapetus for the anagram of "Odnalro" for the capital city. It really helped a lot!**


	6. Track 06

Streets to the Summer  
Track 06: "In the Darkness I Remain"

It was before dawn when he stood in front of the sealed Secret Place. Rain dripped off of his bangs and into his eyes from the summer shower, but he paid it no mind. He had business here. A month after he and Sora came back home from the World That Never Was, they and Kairi had closed it off with rocks and sealed it with magic. But Riku had forgotten one important detail: the Keyhole. He was the only one that knew it was in there, and he hadn't locked it or told Sora to. So he took up Way to the Dawn and broke through the magic protecting the cave. He didn't need to go inside to see the Keyhole—he could feel its presence, and he remembered exactly where it was. He took his Keyblade in both hands and made a stabbing motion at the stones, allowing a beam of dark blue light to shoot forth and finally close the Keyhole. Once finished, he raised the magic seals again—stronger ones this time, that he'd learned from his friends—and walked back toward the beach.

"Feeling nostalgic?" mocked an all too familiar voice. Riku turned to see Maleficent behind him.

"I had some unfinished business here," he answered. "It looks like I have some with you too."

He got into a battle stance with his Keyblade prepared to stab her dark heart while she regally held her staff. Green flames encircled them, turning the sand beneath their feet into smoky glass. It only took a minute for Riku to charge.

He didn't know why, but his thoughts drifted back to his Awakening. Every person wielding a true Keyblade had gone through an Awakening: Sora, Roxas, Mickey, and finally Riku. He had asked Mickey about it once, before he even knew he would have one. It was just a random question; they told each other stories of their lives to keep themselves sane on their journey. The King said he'd been in a dark field and presented with three weapons: a shield, a staff, and a sword, each bearing his family's crest. He chose the staff—magic—as his dominant power and gave up another power in exchange. He then had to answer questions to three people the Awakening chose from his memories: Donald, Goofy, and Ansem the Wise. After that came a fight against an enormous Heartless formed from his shadow. He thought he won, but darkness came for him anyway. Just when he was afraid he might succumb, he woke up.

When Riku faced his own Awakening, he had an idea of what to expect. But things were a little different for him, and a bit more shocking because of his choice to wield the power of darkness for good. Although he had been stuck in Ansem's form at the time, the Awakening returned him to his true form. He didn't know whether or not it was supposed to mean the Station of Awakening was within his heart. His eyes were blindfolded, and yet he could see as clearly as if they uncovered. It was then that he discovered the three weapons before him.

"Soul Eater?" he recognized, confused at the sight of his sword. From Mickey's story, he'd expected weapons with the crest of Disney Castle. But the sword was Soul Eater, and the staff and shield both seemed to be based off of its demonic appearance. He reached out his hand and took hold of the hilt.

A terrible and wonderful voice suddenly spoke up. It was one voice, and yet it was a thousand voices at once. It was both male and female, kind and cruel, familiar and unfamiliar. Loudly and yet softly, the voice(s) declared, "_The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction… Is this the power you seek?"_

The voice(s?) sounded like it (they?) was trying to scare him away. But Riku took a deep breath and answered, "Yes." No other weapon would ever feel right in his hands. He would find a way to turn terrible destruction into rebirth.

"_Now what will you give in exchange?"_ the voice asked.

Riku looked at the other two weapons. He knew the staff was the power of the mystic, and Mickey warned him that it could cause wonder and ruin. He took the warning to heart, but… Darkness wasn't usually a nurturing power. It too was terrible destruction, wonder, and ruin. Riku turned to the shield.

"_The power of the guardian," _the voice explained, sounding much more singular, kind, and familiar. "_Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. You give up this power?"_

"Yes," Riku answered, looking at the sword in his hands. "I'll find my own way to protect my friends."

* * *

"You can't exactly protect anyone if you plan on getting yourself killed like that," interrupted a voice. Riku was jarred out of his memories by a young man with purple hair, carrying a white rabbit on one shoulder. Although he was a thief, Dark Mousy had become a friend and lent aid to Riku whenever he needed it. The rabbit, With, leapt into Riku's lap. "What's wrong, Himura? You've been spacing out since you got here." 

"I can't help it," Riku replied, petting With absently. "I've been having nightmares again."

"That Ansem guy again?" he guessed. He shook his head. "You should have come here immediately after that problem in the capital city. Emiko and Daiki could have helped you suppress it." Then, after a pause, he added, "Daisuke's worried. He's seen the same exact thing happen with a classmate that's happening to you. The only difference is that he has no way of helping his classmate, who has no way of helping himself."

"Family curse?" Riku guessed. Dark nodded. "I thought the Niwas were the only ones with it."

"You're changing the subject," Dark pointed out. "How did you get here? I get back with the _Euphelia's_ _Nightscape_ just to find you half-conscious, burned, and bleeding while Emiko's bandaging you up."

Riku sighed, "I don't really know. One minute, I was losing my fight with Maleficent, and the next thing I know I'm in your living room. I guess I opened a portal subconsciously."

It was Dark's turn to sigh. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a ring set with a blue stone and tossed it to Riku. "That's the Rutile of Grief. I stole it a couple of months ago, when Kousuke arrived. It magnifies your inner power. I have one myself—a replica, but this one's the real thing. It should help you access your power easier without having to call on Ansem."

"Thanks," Riku answered, slipping the large ring onto his thumb.

Dark took out a photograph from his pocket and glanced at it momentarily before closing his eyes and reverting to the form of Daisuke Niwa. Unconsciously, the red-haired fourteen-year-old put the photo back in his pocket. Looking at Riku, he said, "I'll get you some clothes to wear for now. When you're feeling up to it, we can look through my dad's books to see if he has anything that might help you. You're still looking for cases of dark powers being used for good, right?" Riku nodded. "By the way, how are those sealing spells Mom, Grandpa, and Dark taught you working?"

"They're good," Riku assured. "We managed to seal off the mainland from the Heartless. They're still going to attack the islands, though, looking for us."

"Better than nothing, I guess?" Daisuke asked as Riku nodded. "Okay. Let's see what we can find."

* * *

It was a day later when Riku set out again. He'd called Disney Castle on his communicator to get a ride back home, and a quick shower in Hi-Potions helped cover up the burns and cuts he'd gotten from Maleficent's attack; then he told his mother that he was sore from playing. She didn't need to know that he had stupidly fought the most powerful witch in all the worlds. He fell asleep the minute he got in his bedroom, and only woke up at the crack of dawn the next day to find another world. While taking him back, Mickey had told him of a new world they had discovered. Like Neverland, it was directly connected to a world in its shadow. In this world, there were rumors of ten legendary heroes who had saved the world from a horrible tyrant. Generations later, six children took up the fight to finish what the original ten had started. 

"They take their powers from the elements," Mickey had explained. "But the elements we know are fire, air, water, and earth. These six use fire, wind, thunder, ice, light, and darkness."

_A Warrior of Darkness,_ Riku thought, piloting the Gummi Ship to the new world. _Just like me._

His thoughts once again drifted to his Awakening, when he'd suddenly found himself weaponless in the middle of the Dark City of the World That Never Was. But no Heartless were around, leaving him to walk around in search of someone, anyone. Finally, he found Mickey, who turned and looked at him.

"What's most important to you?" he asked. Though it was his voice, it didn't sound right. Realizing it was just another part of his test, Riku didn't react. He just searched for the answer deep within his heart. There were a lot of sentiments, but one stood out more than the others.

"My friends," he answered. And nothing could be truer—he would give and do anything for the people closest to his heart, and he had in the past.

Expecting Mickey to say something more, Riku was surprised to see that he'd vanished, leaving him to wander the streets again. There didn't seem to be anyone around, so he walked past Memory's Skyscraper to investigate. There he found DiZ.

"What do you want out of life?" the bandaged man questioned.

Riku thought about it for a while, going through a hundred possible answers before settling on the right one:

"Redemption." His friends had forgiven him, but he needed to forgive himself. It wasn't easy.

DiZ vanished, and Riku suddenly felt a familiar presence nearby. He raced to the front of the skyscraper, knowing there had been no one there. But now, there was a figure standing at the building's base. Riku ran up, stopping short when the figure turned around.

It was Xehanort.

He looked completely sane, but that didn't stop Riku from gaping. It was still the same man who had turned to darkness and then possessed him. And he looked no older than eighteen. Looking at him was like looking into a broken mirror. Riku suddenly hated the Awakening for what it was putting him through. The people who questioned him were supposed to be important in his heart, though excluding Sora and Kairi for some reason. Why not Naminé or one of his friends from the islands?

"_Isn't he someone important in your heart, though?"_ the voice asked. "_He's closer than Naminé or the friends you chose to leave behind."_

Xehanort calmly watched him the whole time. It was a shock when he finally spoke. His voice was soft and compassionate, not at all like what Riku remembered.

"What are you afraid of?"

_You!_ Riku thought desperately, but his mouth said, "My darkness."

Xehanort nodded. After all, what he thought and what he said were really the same thing.

"_Your adventure begins at dawn."_

* * *

"Are you okay?" someone asked. 

Riku looked over to see a young boy—no older than twelve—staring at him with concern. There was dark power coming from him—this was the Warrior of Darkness he'd been looking for. He was disappointed. Whatever connection the boy had to the power of darkness was strained. He hadn't used it in a long time, this much Riku could tell. The trip had been a waste of time.

"I'm fine," he assured.

"Are you sure?" the boy checked.

"Koichi?" asked another boy, one who looked almost identical to this Koichi. Riku could feel dark power inside him too, but to a much lesser extent, and coexisting with a strained power of light. "Something wrong?"

"Uh, nothing, Koji," he answered. "Just give me a minute."

"I'll be fine," Riku said. "I was just looking for something, but I couldn't find it."

"Oh," Koichi replied. "I hope you find it."

"Me too," Riku murmured as Koichi reluctantly headed back to his friends. They were just six children, playing soccer in the park. Riku could tell they were the six heroes of that world. Yet here they were, living ordinary lives without the fear of their pasts hanging over them. Maybe one day, he would be able to have that too.

_One more world,_ he promised himself, heading back to the Gummi Ship and bringing up the world map. He'd scouted this one out months ago: a world full of magic, but that magic was hidden from most of the world. If there was any chance of finding something that might help him, something that might encourage him, it would be there. Putting the ship on autopilot, he took the opportunity to doze.

The World That Never Was had shattered after the voice of the Awakening told him when his adventure would begin. He once again found himself in the dark field, standing upon a stained glass platform. The sword was once again in his hand, and he looked around, knowing that this was when he'd have to fight his shadow.

"_No," _the voice corrected him. "_The closer you are to darkness, the more your enemy is you."_

And from the darkness, another Riku appeared—a year younger, wearing the armor of his dark mode and carrying another Soul Eater. At once, both entered the same battle stance before attacking in unison.

It was probably the most difficult battle Riku ever fought or would ever fight. His darker self was just as agile, just as strong, but far more willing to reach deep within himself for the darkness. Riku felt horrible knowing that he had once done that, and fought back with every ounce of his heart and soul. It was a battle against the past more than a battle against the darkness within him. It was a means to achieve his goal in life and protect what was most important to him and possibly even overcome his greatest fear.

A Dark Aura blasted him in the chest, knocking him to the floor. Smirking, the replica leapt at him, Soul Eater ready to slice him in two. Riku raised his own to block, eerily reminded of how Sora had to do the same against him. Throwing enough strength into his block to knock his other self away, he flipped to his feet and resumed the attack. Finally, he scored a killing blow, catching the darker Riku in the chest with his blade. He was horrified at first to see what he had done, but his double gave him a calm smile and vaporized into a darkness that entered the older Riku.

"_Don't be afraid,"_ the voice reassured him. "_Listen to your heart."_

* * *

"Tell anyone and there will be retribution," warned a voice in the store. Riku closed the book he was examining with a sigh. "You know Fenrir Greyback? He's a family friend. He'll be dropping in from time to time to make sure you're giving the problem your full attention." 

Drowning out the rest of the conversation, Riku silently put the book back and slipped out of a side door. The shopkeeper and a blond teenager were still arguing over something. Riku didn't particularly want to know the details. In this world, anything dark was considered evil, and those who chose to wield the darkness enjoyed causing pain for others. The best Riku could hope for was a rumor that a young, powerful wizard-in-training had a traditionally dark ability, but he fought on the side of light. And that ability—talking to snakes—was completely useless to him.

Someone was whispering nearby. Riku froze and listened as three people hidden in invisibility argued just outside the shop:

"He wants something mended…and he wants to reserve something in there… Could you see what he pointed at when he said 'that one'?"

"No, he was behind that cabinet—"

"You two stay here."

"What are you—?"

A brown-haired girl appeared out of nowhere, accidentally flipping up the cloak of invisibility for a second, revealing her co-conspirators. Riku let out a faint sigh of relief. He didn't have anything to worry about. He'd seen those kids before, when he was scouting out the area. They were essentially the local versions of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Once he was sure the two boys under the cloak were watching for their friend, he left the alley.

The blond boy was just ahead of him. Riku considered stopping him, telling him not to make such a huge mistake and throw his life away to this kind of darkness, but he didn't. He had been a lot like that once, and the only way for him to learn was to find it out the hard way. So too would this boy.

His communicator was flashing blue when he returned to the Gummi Ship, indicating a non-emergency call. The crest of Disney Castle was on the screen. Riku sighed but didn't waste any time turning the communicator on. He had a feeling he was in for a lecture.

"Riku, where were you?" demanded Mickey. Riku was right; he had seen the King angry before, but never before now had that anger been directed toward him. "Sora and Kairi told me they couldn't call you and panicked after I told them you came back from Azumano injured yesterday."

"I was exploring some other worlds, and I lost track of time," he explained.

Mickey sighed, "Can you at least take your communicator with you?"

"You don't have to worry about me," he assured. "I'm heading back to the castle anyway."

"No luck?"

Riku shook his head. "The Warrior of Darkness, Koichi, hasn't used his power in a long time. There was someone named Koji who seemed to have a small connection to darkness, even though everything seems to point to him being the Warrior of Light. I think they might have been brothers, which probably explains it a little."

"What about Diagon Alley?" Mickey asked.

"Even worse," Riku confessed. "They're in the middle of a war against a powerful dark wizard, so any kind of dark power is taboo. I'm hoping I might have a little more luck in your library."

"I've checked all I have. Most of what Master Yen Sid gave me before he abandoned the Twilight Town tower are just on neutral or light magic. And the books from Radiant Garden won't help you either. I was hoping the Digital World might have more on the power of darkness because of their Legendary Warriors, but if you couldn't find anything…"

"I'm not giving up," he insisted. "You have one book from the Digital World, right?"

"We still can't translate it. Their language is only made up of four characters, making it hard to decipher. Professor Von Drake is still looking at it."

"I still want to come anyway, just in case there's something I missed."

Mickey sighed again. "I'll be out—more trouble in Cape Suzette—but I'll tell the others to expect you."

"Thanks," Riku answered before ending the transmission. He turned the ship around and headed for Disney Castle, being sure to keep his mind on his task. He would need all his wits about him if he was going to try and translate that book.

An hour later, he was in the library, poring over crayon drawings of the Ten Legendary Warriors and trying his hardest to translate the text. Minnie had come in fifteen minutes ago, asking him if he needed anything; all he'd asked for was a cup of very strong tea. It was sitting right next to him, half-finished, as he burnt out two decoding spells.

"Heya, Riku," Goofy called, walking in. "The Queen sent me to check on you. How's your research going?"

"Terrible," he confessed. "The most I've managed to figure out is that the Digital World's language doesn't translate into our language—it's probably got a translation in the language of the world it's connected to. We'd first need to translate that language before heading onto this one."

"You know, maybe you're trying too hard," Goofy pointed out. Riku shot him a tired and confused look. "You said you found others who used darkness for good."

"Koichi's part of a team," Riku corrected. "And Dark's intentions aren't entirely good."

"But still, they're using their powers to save people. And from the sound of it, Koichi and Dark haven't had anyone to teach 'em how it's done. Maybe instead of looking for something to encourage you about using your darkness for good, you've got to encourage others like Koichi and Dark."

"You mean write down everything I've learned?" he asked.

"Yep," Goofy agreed. "That way, no one else like you will have to suffer thinking they're alone."

Riku took one last look at the Digital World book before finally closing it and asking, "Are there any blank books left?"

* * *

He spent the rest of the afternoon at the castle, writing down the spells and abilities he knew, providing detailed information on how to use each one. One day, he'd put a spell on the book so that only people with good intentions would be able to open it; but until he knew how to do that, he would settle for keeping it in a magically created pocket dimension. 

He left the castle grounds in order to concentrate on a new spell. He had just closed his eyes and begun to gather his power when thorns grew all around him, enclosing him in a large circle. Maleficent was once again right behind him.

"I didn't want to take any chances this time," she said. "You managed to run away last time. That won't happen again."

"No," he agreed. "It won't."

The former student and teacher looked at each other. If anyone was able to see past the thorny barrier, he or she would think that they were merely going to talk. Neither one had settled into a battle stance, and neither of them seemed to look particularly hateful toward the other.

Remembering his choice of weapon in the Awakening (_A sword of terrible destruction… I'll find my own way to protect my friends_), his greatest fear (_My darkness_), and the few others that seemed similar to him (_A phantom thief, a Legendary Warrior, and a wizard-in-training about to make a huge mistake_), Riku summoned Way to the Dawn.

"I won't run away again."

Maleficent's flames came at him, prepared to burn him to a crisp. He lifted his left hand and fired his Dark Aura. He knew it was exactly the same thing he'd done in their last battle; he'd lost then, unable to keep it up, and he'd been covered in burns from both green and silver flames. This time, he had the Rutile of Grief to boost his power, allowing him to push the flames away from him. Maleficent was still far more powerful than he was, so he didn't bother trying to keep up the power struggle. Once he had an opening, he broke through the flames and swung his Keyblade. It only managed to hit her staff, forcing him to tumble out of the way before she could counterattack. He hurriedly forced down a Potion before she came at him, trying to bring her staff down on his skull. He threw up a Dark Shield quickly. The speed with which the shield came up and the strength it held momentarily threw her off-balance, giving Riku the chance to get back to his feet and draw back his Keyblade in his usual fighting stance. He then thrust it forward, just managing to knick Maleficent's left cheek. She threw him to the side with her staff, however, bruising his ribs. He managed to get out an Elixir just before hitting the thorns. He chugged it down and stood up, throwing the empty bottle aside. She came at him again, and he swiftly blocked her staff with his Keyblade. As she began to summon green flames around them to close in on him, he focused his energy on channeling his Dark Aura into his Keyblade. Just as Maleficent's magic threatened to consume him, he leapt into the air, his Keyblade burning silver, and prepared to bring it down. She once again brought up her staff to block it.

"Shall we end this?" she asked.

"I won't lose again," he affirmed.

Their powers surged in a wildfire of green and silver. The wall of thorns couldn't handle the pressure and finally burst open, revealing two figures still standing. Maleficent and Riku faced each other one last time. Neither had won, yet neither had lost. They had simply cancelled each other out.

"You won't be so lucky next time," Maleficent stated.

"Neither will you," Riku answered, letting his Keyblade vanish.

A dark portal suddenly opened behind him. He turned and stared at it in confusion before looking back to Maleficent. A similar portal was at her side.

"You want to go home, right?" she asked. "Since you can't open them yourself anymore, consider this my last gift to you." He nodded, and they both departed.

The portal opened directly to the ocean surrounding the children's island. The energy created a large wave off the coast. Riku emerged from it to see Sora and Kairi on the beach, looking relieved to see him. Smiling slightly, he waved at them.

**This title comes from a line in Josh Groban's "Remember When It Rained," but the structure of the chapter itself is based on "Epilogue," an episode of _Justice League Unlimited._ I own neither. Featured worlds and cameo characters are Dark and Daisuke of _D.N. Angel_ (created by Yukiru Sagisaki; setting sometime after episode twelve, "With Rutile…" All previous references to the Niwa family, black feathers, and the town of Azumano were leading up to this), Koichi and Koji of _Digimon __Frontier_ (created by Toei, distributed by Disney), and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco of _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_ (created by J.K. Rowling).**


	7. Track 07

Streets to the Summer  
Track 07: "The Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me"

Olette sighed and stared off into space as she sat on the couch in her friends' usual spot. It was the kind of sigh she tended to make when she was bored, but there was no limit to activity going on lately. In fact, ever since Sora had first appeared, Twilight Town stopped being such a sleepy little village and was starting to become noticed by the rest of the worlds. Nobodies were attacking a little more frequently, and not just against Sora's friends in town. It had Hayner, Pence, and Olette worried that the Heartless might soon follow. Some people had started to talk of moving to some place safer, now that Twilight Town wasn't the haven it used to be, but others—like Seifer and his friends—chose to fight against the town's troubles. The Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee, in fact, had started to become a small civilian Nobody-slaying organization, and the police were torn between feeling thankful that there were kids on the streets determined to stop the troublemakers, and wanting to tell them to stop interfering in their business—if fighting creatures without hearts even _was_ their business in the first place. Hayner and Pence had even taken a more active role in stopping the Nobodies before they attacked—Pence had his taser to work with, and Hayner had gotten a nail-covered baseball bat that was doing wonders for him. So things weren't quiet. But it didn't keep Olette from feeling restless. Everyone else seemed to have found a place, but she hadn't.

_I guess I might as well take a walk,_ she thought. _There's really nothing better to do._

She walked over into the tunnels, hoping that nothing would attack while she was in there. It would be hard to run from Nobodies in the tunnels, what with the narrow passages and all. But things seemed to be fairly quiet, so she wandered around the passageways, picking up occasional items that had been left behind by other travelers.

Candlelight in one corner caught her attention, so she snuck a peek. Vivi, who was usually practicing with his Struggle bat, was lighting and extinguishing candles with magic. Occasionally, he would look in a book and make the flames rise higher, and then he'd lower them. With enough concentration, he managed to alter the shape of the flames, creating a burning halo over one of the candles. But afterwards, he sat down, panting.

"Wow, that's really good!" Olette declared. Seeing her, Vivi started. "I'm sorry. I was just watching your magic. How long have you been practicing?"

"A few years," Vivi admitted. "I'm not very good."

"But that was great," she insisted. "I usually only see magic used for offense. I didn't know it could be used like this."

"It's just practice," he replied.

"Think you could teach me some?" she asked.

"I don't know enough," he confessed. "I won't be a good teacher."

"Okay," she answered, still reluctant to drop the issue. But then, remembering the pyrotechnic mock-battle on the Destiny Islands, she asked, "What if I found us both a teacher? Then you wouldn't have to practice in the tunnels."

Vivi looked confused. "But who?"

"Just let me call him and see if he'll help, okay?" she asked.

She stepped away for a minute and pulled out her communicator. To be honest, Donald would probably be the best choice for a teacher, but he was most likely busy with whatever a court magician was supposed to do. So she put in Riku's frequency instead.

"Olette?" he asked, surprised.

"Hi, Riku," she answered. "Think you can come by Twilight Town sometime? I wanted to know if you could teach me and one of my friends some magic."

He sounded a little unsure and distracted for a minute, but he finally answered, "All right. I'll come by tomorrow."

"Thanks!" she replied. "I'll let him know." She placed her communicator back in her pocket and walked back over to Vivi. "Riku says he'll come tomorrow. I guess we'll meet him at the station, since I'm not sure how much he knows his way around town."

"Uh, okay," Vivi agreed reluctantly.

"Don't worry," Olette assured. "He's nice. He's one of Sora's friends. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Okay," Vivi answered.

"I promise you it'll be okay," she added. "Riku's a little hard to make friends with when you first meet him, but he values his friends a lot."

"Like Seifer?" he asked.

Olette blinked, never once having made the connection. Riku didn't seem to be the same kind of person as Seifer, but maybe, deep down…

"Yeah, I guess so," she replied. "Maybe."

"Okay then," Vivi agreed. "See you tomorrow."

* * *

The next morning, Vivi was already waiting at the station when a yawning Olette came over. She waved and declared, "Sorry I'm late. I was up all night reading books on magic. I never realized the library had that much information." 

Another train pulled in, but Riku wasn't on it. It had been the third one to come in already, so Vivi asked, "Which one is he supposed to be on?"

"I'm not sure," Olette answered. "He didn't say, but I'm sure we'll see him soon."

It was then that one of the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town decided to pull into the station. Everyone was used to the passenger-less train from nowhere and so paid it no mind. The lack of interest in the train made it easy for Riku to slip into the crowd and make his way over to Olette and Vivi.

"Are you both ready?" he checked. They nodded. "Good. The train will be leaving soon, so follow me."

As they started to board the mystery train, Olette asked, "Where are we going? I thought we'd be going to the sandlot."

"Too many people around," Riku explained. "Yen Sid's tower on the edge of the world is better. But there are Nobodies around, so let me deal with any we find, all right?"

Vivi and Olette were wowed when the train set off, leaving behind most of Twilight Town in an orange haze. They were equally amazed at the island floating in the middle of nowhere—even though Olette had traveled to the Destiny Islands, this was still impressive to her.

When they disembarked, several Nobodies were slinking around, so Riku took care of them before motioning for his students to sit on the grass.

"So, how much do you know already?" he asked, looking at Vivi in particular.

The young mage tried not to shrink from his gaze as he replied, "Some fire, ice, and time magic, and a little bit of lightning."

When Riku looked at Olette, she added, "I started trying a couple of fire spells last night with my mom's candles. I nearly burned one of my curtains."

"All right," Riku answered. "Vivi, I don't know much about time magic, so I'll have to find a few books for you. But for now, we'll start with elemental magic—specifically fire, since it's the easiest to focus on." He took out a box of candles and lit them with some matches. Olette stared at him in surprise.

"Couldn't you just use magic to light them?" she asked. "You have those silver flames…"

"Dark Aura isn't a fire-based attack, no matter what it looks like," he explained. "And experimenting with darkness is too dangerous." There was some lingering regret in his voice, so neither Vivi nor Olette pressed the issue.

Handing each of them a candle, he said, "We'll start off with manipulation. Try and change the size and shape of the flame as much as you can without burning yourself or anything else."

"What shape?" Vivi asked.

Riku considered it for a moment before replying, "Since we're going easy right now, do a ring."

He called it easy, but Olette was having a rather hard time with it. She'd experimented with size manipulation and shape manipulation the night before, but not both together. Vivi was struggling a little bit too, but his greater experience was showing in the much larger size of his ring. Olette was having a hard enough time maintaining a ring the size of her hand without the fire dying. Finally, she sat down and let the flame return to its normal size and shape. She felt shaky and had a hard time trying to catch her breath. Riku came over with a cube of ether and told them both to take a break.

"That was good," he insisted. "Now that I've got a feel for what you're capable of, I know how to teach you."

After a break, they continued with fire before switching to air and ice for a little while. Aero was the easiest spell for them to catch onto, since the element was always around them, and the only effort it took was to call it over to them. Blizzard turned out to be more difficult than expected—by nature, things did not just spontaneously freeze. But with a bit of the wind magic they'd just learned, they managed to carry the spell.

"That's good for today," Riku informed when both felt like they were about to collapse. "Tomorrow, meet me on Market Street so we can get you some staves. It'll make things easier for you."

* * *

Hayner walked into the usual spot, confused as to why no one was around. He knew that Pence had a few errands to run first, but Olette should have been around. He wasn't feeling all that patient today, so he threw some darts into the board before grabbing his Struggle bat and heading off to the sandlot. Picking a fight with Seifer—that'd keep him from being bored, all right. 

But instead of Seifer, there was a new blond kid in the sandlot, practicing alone with a Struggle bat. Hayner thought he recognized him, and he decided to trust his gut on this. Still, he had to be sure…

"Hey," he called out. The kid turned to him and looked like he'd seen a ghost. Strike one. "You're new here, right?"

"Just visiting," he answered, managing to keep a calm voice. Strike two for Sora's excuse.

"Since you don't have anyone to practice with, mind playing against me?" Hayner asked, pointing to the Struggle bat with his own. "I'm not in the tournament, but I still like to practice."

"Yeah," the kid agreed. "I'd like that."

A few seconds in, Hayner had to admit that he was _good_. The kid was definitely a fighter, but he knew how to rein in his strength so that he didn't hurt his opponents when he didn't have to. Furthermore, he knew Hayner's moves and knew how to counterattack. Not even Seifer could fight him so effectively. Even more, it felt _right_ to be doing this, practicing with him. It really was strike three.

When they reached the one-minute mark they'd agreed on, Hayner called out, "Hey, I'm out. You beat me."

The kid was barely even winded when he declared, "You're good."

"You too," Hayner agreed. "Most people I fight can't keep up with me that way."

"Well, I've had practice," the kid answered.

"I'm sure you have, Roxas." Roxas stared at him in shock for a minute before settling in a somewhat depressed expression. Hayner looked at the kid who could have been his best friend and asked, "You want to talk about it?"

* * *

Riku wasn't surprised when Olette and Vivi arrived to Market Street later than they'd agreed. Both were tired from the magical exercises of the day before, so he made a mental note to teach them a little lighter today. Before heading to the weapons shop, he pointed them in the direction of the nearest café and bought them breakfast. They protested over the money and the extra food, but he gave them an even stare until they finished everything. Once he was sure they weren't going to fall asleep on their feet, they went to check out the staves. 

"You should choose something appropriate for your power," he advised.

"Teaching?" asked Wallace, the weapons master. Riku nodded. "Let me help. You two are beginners, so you'll want something a little above what you're capable of—the Victory Bell or the Comet Staff is probably the best right now. You can always upgrade to something better." He said this as he looked at Vivi, who was gazing at a Wisdom Wand. It was pricey and out of his skill range.

"I think I'll take this one," Olette decided, picking up a Comet Staff. Riku couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight of the star-topped wand. "What?"

"Kairi and Selphie would have done the same," he said. "Is it all girls, or just the ones I know?"

"Now, that one won't exactly grow with you, but you can sell it for a better one," Wallace reminded her.

"I think this will be good," Olette determined. "After all, I'm not planning on any heavy duty fighting."

"Vivi, if you want something a little stronger, you might want the Victory Bell or the Lord's Broom," Wallace suggested. "Those will grow with you a little more and give you a little more room to learn. Again, if you need something stronger when you reach your staff's limit, you can buy something better."

After Vivi and Olette bought their staves, they stopped off to buy a few ethers and synthesize two elixirs before heading to the tower. This time, when the Nobodies appeared, Riku let his students try their hand at fighting, offering a few tips on how to quickly move behind the Dusks before they could attack. After the three of them had cleared the field, they began another practice. With staves, they were able to start moving away from elemental spells and start trying defensive spells. Vivi mastered Reflect quickly, as he was used to trying to hide behind the bigger kids when trouble came. In contrast, Olette was better with Stop, freezing an attacker in his tracks so she could escape. Gravity and Thunder were a little too dangerous to practice, so Riku demonstrated them before promising that in their next lesson, he'd find some way to ward the area against any slips.

"All right, we might as well head back," he decided. "You guys did good for today."

For some reason, he accompanied them back to town, but when they reached the sandlot, Olette could see why. In the middle of the Struggle practice area, Roxas was sparring and talking with Hayner while Pence stood to the side, throwing in a few comments. And as awkward and weird as it could have been, it wasn't. Roxas looked as if he'd always belonged with them, and Olette had to admit that he did, just as much as Sora belonged with Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy.

"Hey, Roxas," Olette called out, walking over to him. "Nice to finally meet you." Behind her, Riku was explaining to Vivi that Roxas was one of Sora's relatives and had wanted to check out Twilight Town for himself.

"Yeah," Roxas agreed. "Nice to meet you." The grins the four kids had would have given away their secret if anyone else was around. There was no way they were meeting each other for the first time.

But before anyone could say anything next, Nobodies surrounded them. Hayner dropped his Struggle bat and grabbed the nail-bat he'd been keeping with him for just such an emergency. Pence pulled his taser out of his pocket while Olette and Vivi held up their staves and Riku revealed his Keyblade. Roxas, however, just took up both Struggle bats instead of using his Keyblade, as if he just wanted to pretend he was an ordinary kid. In retrospect, who could blame him?

The fight was absolute chaos. Spells, Dark Auras, and Thunder blasts went everywhere. Roxas and Hayner were a tag team, bashing the Nobodies with their bats as if they'd done it all their lives. Everyone tossed potions and ethers back and forth to keep each other from slowing down. Then, at last, the invaders were gone.

"Great job," Roxas commented. Then, to Vivi, he added, "I've never seen anyone move as fast as you."

Riku nodded. He'd kept a running count, and the small mage had taken down at least twice as many Dusks as any of the others had. "Yeah, Vivi. You did great. Same for you, Olette."

She smiled. "Well, we had a good teacher."

"Um, Riku?" Vivi piped up. "Think you can teach us Cure tomorrow? So the next time we fight, we can keep going?"

"The one Sora knows uses up all your magic," Roxas pointed out.

"I think I can find one that won't use that much," Riku promised. "I'll look it up tonight, and if I can find it, I'll teach you guys. If not yet, then we at least have Thunder and Gravity to cover."

"Guess we'd better go then," Roxas decided.

"Hey," Hayner interrupted. "You're coming back for the Struggle Tournament, right?"

Roxas smiled and nodded. "Sure. I'll cheer you on."

Hayner threw him a grin in return. "Guess I'd better sign back up, then. Can't have any of my friends cheering on Seifer." Then, with a look to Vivi, he added, "No offense. He's just my rival."

This got Roxas laughing. "Yeah. I'll be there. End of the summer, right?"

"Yeah," Hayner answered, and he and Roxas clasped hands as if in a secret handshake. Pence and Olette grinned. It looked like all four of them had found just what they were looking for.

**I apologize for the extremely long wait in-between chapters. A massive case of writer's block hit me, so I had to wander off to other fandoms and other projects. This chapter is nothing like what I planned to have (originally, it was just Olette and Vivi), but I did want to bring "Streets" to a close and finish it off with Hayner and Roxas meeting and getting along like they'd always been friends. There were several other fun chapters I intended to throw in, such as an adventure with the Twilight Town kids, Kairi, and the Destiny Islands support staff against Heartless, a crossover with _Kim Possible _focusing on Kairi and Seifer, and a redemption piece for Pete. Alas, I could never reach them, but I did manage to finish it off rather nicely, I think. The title comes from "The Rainbow Connection" from _The Muppet Movie_.**


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